Team BYRN: Return to Darkness
by FallingInStereo
Summary: After the Breach, life at Beacon returned to normal…ish. Well, at least there's no bodies. The investigation into the events during our second semester continues, and things admittedly aren't going very well. My team is falling slowly apart, and Vale continues to descend into madness. I don't know how long we have before the darkness consumes us all. Sequel to Team BYRN: The Veil.
1. Chapter 1

For those of you who followed The Veil, here's section two of the story! Return to Darkness will focus on the events following the Breach (like 99% speculation). This section is really what I had in mind when making this entire story, so I hope you like it, despite that fact that I'll totally gloss over the Vytal Festival because of reasons. This is just an introductory chapter with some basic information on the characters. If you feel like A. Figuring it out for yourself like a total BAMF, or B. Ignoring this because you read The Veil, then go ahead.

/

Story Summary:

After the Breach, life at Beacon returned to normal…ish. The investigation into the events during our second semester continues, and things admittedly aren't going very well. My team is falling slowly apart, and Vale continues to descend into madness. I don't know how long we have before the darkness consumes us all. Sequel to Team BYRN: The Veil.

/

Prologue –This summary is a chronological system of events from The Veil, which ignores the reveals in the original story:

A student, Kevin, had a friend in Sun Wukong in Vacuo. After Sun left for Mistral for combat school, Kevin resumed normal life, even attaining a girlfriend despite the roughness of being borderline-homeless and bullied at school some. There was a fire when Kevin was 13-14ish, which presumably killed his girlfriend, Hexanne. After a year of grief and anger (the fire being started by some other kids from the school), Kevin takes it out on a pair of robbers at a nearby convenience store, saving the owner barehanded. Interactions with the police after this placed him in primary combat school (A normally 4-year program that one applies to be in at 12 and joins at 13). Kevin joins two years late as a result, and the rage that consumed him continues to live on.

He meets Aruna, a nice socialite, who makes friends with him. In order to curb his anger, with permission from teachers, Aruna locks his anger behind a mental wall (hypnosis). Kevin and Aruna develop a strong camaraderie, him coming to live at her new house after an accident left her dad without a wife or the unborn child meant to come. Time goes on and Kevin goes to Beacon: Without a weapon, due to the year-based restrictions on access to the forge at the Vacuo academy. He appears as a somewhat well-prepared guy, despite his lack of a weapon, with strong ingenuity and instinct at his side.

His team at Beacon creates a sense of family for him, as well as his fighting partner: Jade. She is an ex-assassin who is trying to live a life as a huntress after realizing what she was doing. The Team builds up both of these people into more stable individuals. Along with Ember, they all live normal Beacon lives, becoming happier over time and forgetting about their pasts (this was meant to be crucial, showing their potential to be somewhat normal kids with happy futures). Kevin gets his weapons after Jade forges some for him, and he unlocks his semblance during class. Kevin meets with Sun again.

At some point, Kevin runs into RWBY's antics, getting absorbed into the fight with the Paladin, as well as meeting Penny, and discovering a codename for something she's involved in: The Delta Initiative. His level of knowledge on this is only that it involves the military and General Ironwood. He spends some time investigating this to no avail, and tries to tell Blake that her own search is currently futile for similar reasons. Ozpin finds out about Kevin's search, and asks that he share whatever he finds.

Kevin also runs into Cardin, who wants to reform himself and his team after a mix of Jaune/Kevin's words/the school population convinces him that he needs to change. Kevin agrees to help after all of CRDL agrees to it, trying to teach Cardin team combat as well as anger control and patience. Ozpin (And Jaune, to an extent) takes up this charge from Kevin. Kevin runs into Hexanne during his Vytal Festival mission. His semblance, being able to absorb pain and anger, goes wild for a bit after this.

The Breach occurs, and Team BYRN shows that they're a great grimm extermination team again. Jade has nightmares, and goes to Kevin for comfort. Kevin has a dream similar to Yang's, except it's Hexanne in place of Raven.

/

Character Descriptions:

Team BYRN:

Kevin Nakamura: The narrator. A man with a dark faux-hawk and purple eyes, which have changed color in a time of extreme emotion. He wears dark clothing in general: Normally jeans, a hoodie, a button-up shirt, and boots. He tends to try and help others, especially his friends, and has shown his ability to think of quick solutions in tight situations (although usually of the destructive nature). There's mentions of an angry version of him existing before Beacon, and that he might have been homeless before meeting Aruna. Fights through agility, flips/kicks, and counter-attacks.

Weapons: Noctus and Sivir, a rifle and shield, respectively. Noctus is a rifle with a low-angle handle, with an extending bayonet and barrel, and a stock that accommodates single and dual grip. The weapon can be held like a sword because of the handle, and Kevin makes use of this, deploying the small knife on the bottom of the stock as well for an extra bit of utility. Sivir is an arm gauntlet that deploys the sections of the circular shield at the click of a button. This weapon can spin around like a buzzsaw.

Semblance: Shadow's Mirror. Kevin can take the negative energy from people (based on current emotional states: Specifically pain, anger, fear, sadness, jealousy. People within these states are considered sources of material for his semblance. Sources can be visually alerted to him by a smoky presence surrounding them (only he sees this), or by a voice whispering in his head the current emotion they are feeling (He needs to have had visual contact with a source in order to use it. Sources can be drained of all current energy relevant to his semblance).

The material used appears as shadows, and can be used by Kevin for basic physical utility. The automatic manifestation of the shadows is as a thin armor around him, which acts as a second layer on top of his aura, but can also be used as a pushing force or other physical things (creativity necessary). Upon drawing shadows to himself, enters a brief state of raw pain or anger, before being free to use the shadows. The pain/anger stays constant throughout the use of the shadows, starting at almost nothing after the initial burst before slowly rising higher and higher. When Kevin releases control of the shadows, this stops the pain/anger, and disperses the shadows around him in a low-power burst. Grimm and himself can be used as sources with a bit of extra effort.

Aruna Bromwell: Third-tallest. Battle gear consists of a black leather vest with lapels, metal bracelets on her arms, jeans, and combat boots. There are holsters on her thighs that hold her tomahawks, which slide upwards into her hands. She has a short spiky bob of red with upturned bangs, which glimmers in the light, and blue eyes. She tends to wear normal civilian clothing outside of this battle gear. Aruna brought Kevin into her home after becoming friends with him. Her father lost his wife and an unborn child before Kevin moved in. Fights through speed and agility, using her hands mostly.

Personality: Aruna is a socialite, being kind to others and always caring. Is very protective of Kevin's emotional state, and is friendly overall. She has a very tactical mind in terms of picking the best situations, but her on-the-fly calls are usually delegated to Kevin. Capable of inspiring others easily.

Semblance: Control over fire. Can't create it, but only requires a small flame in order to create more from there. After a time, finds out that with some focus, she can start a fire from the spark inside of a gun when it fires.

Weapons: Twin tomahawks that unfold (See: the Insurrectionist Leader from Red vs Blue). Can connect at the handle bases into a sort of staff. Two arm bracelets, which eventually will have lighters installed on the inner-arm near the wrist for use. Until that point, she carries a lighter at all times (A gift from Kevin).

Jade Yamihari: Shortest of the group. A slender girl with long black hair and sweeping bangs. Battle gear consists of a high-collared sleeveless shirt in dark red, as well as detached sleeves with buckles at the shoulders. Her weapons, wide-edged forearm blades, attach over these sleeves, along with fingerless gloves. She wears black tight jeans with brown knee-high boots. She was raised in an assassin until she decided to become a huntress. Fights very similarly to Kevin, but with less counter-attacks, and a lot more speed.

Personality: Is naturally anxious around people, having been used to only killing them, and not interacting much otherwise. She's bonded strongly with Aruna and Kevin, hiding behind them during social confrontations. Otherwise, she is capable of kindness, having built Kevin's weapons for him. She longs for a sense of family, which she receives from her team.

Semblance: Ethereal Phasing. Can turn into a ghost-like form, which can go through any object at will, except for aura. In this state, Jade can be propelled at high speeds if contact with aura is made, and she is able to float in the sense of the way that one sinks when underwater.

Weapons: Arm gauntlets that deploy forearm blades. See: Edward Elric. Except entirely mechanical and not built into an arm.

Ember Rosemary: Tallest of the group. A curvy girl with mid-back length blonde hair and choppy bangs. She wears red biking goggles on her head at all times. Standardly, she wears tight pants, a graphic tee or blouse of some variety, and an unzipped leather jacket. She has a robotic left arm as a result of an accident, which makes it easy for her to wield her weapon, a high-powered underslung machine gun. Fights with power and heavy hits.

Personality: Very outgoing and personable, always looking for the fun in things. Enjoys music greatly, as shown by her music references and natural skill at DDR. She is protective of her friends.

Semblance: None

Weapons: Shredder- A giant machine gun that folds up onto her back. Activated by a button on the right side connecting shoulder strap. Left-handed weapon similar to Coco's. Her robot arm can deploy a long thin blade (See: Altair/Assassin's Creed), and has been shown to contain at least one other short blade for utility purposes (lock-picking, car-jacking). She carries a heavy pistol on her right hip.

/

Team TANK. A second-year analytical team. Deals more with domestic encounters than with grimm.

Talbot: The leader. A person with investigative strengths. He has a messy shag of dark brown hair, wearing a shredded cloak over his light armor. He fights almost entirely with hand-to-hand combat, although he has a briefcase with him. Is charged with investigating what happened at the CCT during the dance.

Weapon: A heavy briefcase, similar to Coco. However, this shifts into a clawed mobile gauntlet rather than a giant machine gun. He usually just whacks people over the head with it.

Semblance: Refraction. Capable of creating illusions within a small area around himself. Usually used for blending in to an environment.

Abraham: The sniper. A person with interrogative strengths and a calm attitude. He has short black hair and wears a basic tunic, chestplate, and a bicep guard for his weapon's recoil. He's an emotional support for the entire team, although he has strongest bonds with Nicole, being friends for years. He fights through his words, although has shown to be able to fight with his hands well. Faunus.

Weapon: A basic sniper rifle, although it has a similar mechanic to Kevin's Noctus, with the deploying blade from the stabilizer. However, Abraham's stock detaches from the weapon so that this can be used as an axe when he's not using his sniper rifle.

Semblance: None

Nicole: The bruiser. A person with a protective heart. She has side-swept honey bangs and keeps the rest up in a short ponytail. She wears a tan tailcoat, white shirt, and black jeans. She's the physical support for the team, usually rushing headlong into battle when things go sour. She fights with her strength and endurance to end her opponents.

Weapon: A giant hammerstaff. It folds up into a cylinder shape, but extends out into a full thing. The head of the weapon spins like a drill, and the back end has a rocket thruster. There are grips across the staff that let Nicole hold on and unleash small bursts from the thrusters in order to propel herself.

Semblance: None

Kenneth: The engineer. A person with a strong understanding of mechanics. He has unruly black hair and a stout nose, usually wearing a pair of goggles. Tends to wear a thick tunic under a sweeping trenchcoat. On his belt is a series of pouches and slots for small tools. He's one of the stronger on-the-fly thinkers of the group, usually making small machines to supplement his plans. Scared of heights, as he's used to living in his workshop.

Weapon: A pair of electric-gauntlets. The knuckles of the greaves have prongs that let electricity flow through them.

Semblance: None


	2. Chapter 2

It's been weeks since I've heard the bells. They come from this girl I know: Jade. Since The Breach, though, she's been too scared to be able to ring her gentle song. Such a stark contrast to the girl from before then: A strong, kind warrior who was at least approaching happiness. The Breach had left us all scarred in some way, emotionally or physically.

Jade had become terrified—wracked by nightmares. Almost every night she'd come from the girls' section of our shared dorm room to mine, crawling under the covers and clinging to me in order to comfort herself.

Aruna seems miffed every time she wakes up and finds my battle partner next to me. She's become more protective of me ever since, trying to keep my mind safe from recent events: Having an ex from middle school come back from the dead four years later always tends to make people go a little bit crazy.

Ember is almost fine: living day to day by training harder and harder in the arenas to improve. Aruna's the only thing keeping her from over-exerting herself. Whatever way she copes with trauma from before, it clearly works here to prevent her from going any more over the edge than the rest of us.

And myself? I've been trying to keep myself sane by working at the investigation. Cardin's been working on his emotional control: Ozpin has him working in the gardens a lot, surprisingly. As I notice one of the second-year teams, I try to flag his attention.

"Hey! Talbot! Wait up!" I jog after him. He turns around, still holding on to his laptop.

"Hey, Kevin. What's up?" the shorter boy adjusts his tan cloak.

"How's the, uh…the CCT investigation going?"

"Quite well. Cortana's a very cooperative person."

"Who?" I raise an eyebrow at the new name.

"Oh, you haven't officially met, yet: Kevin, meet Cortana," Talbot turns the laptop around, letting me see the screen. There, I see the same image from the holograms at the CCT: That woman at the console.

"Uh, hi," I wave awkwardly at the screen, noticing that the webcam light is on.

"Cortana, Kevin's a friend. Disable civilian model," Talbot commands to the laptop. The woman on the screen nods before a flash of blue light changes the hologram into an image of a blue woman, lights running across her body, with a darker azure background running numbers behind her. Cortana's short black bob seems to shimmer and flow in an invisible wind and light.

"Ah, an AI," I nod my head. The AI waves to me.

"Cortana's one of the two AI controlling and maintaining the CCT: Her program has been moved onto this laptop, and the other one—Koru—is maintaining the CCT in her place, so I can work with her to investigate what the infiltrators did to the system. Unfortunately, running search software against it won't work, because of the sheer size of the program. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

"Thanks," I put a hand on his shoulder. "How is the rest of your team holding up?"

"Kenny's making a lot of…weaponry and armor for students, now. Abraham and Nicole, of course, are using each other to survive. I still don't understand their dynamic, but I guess whatever works, does. What about yours?"

"Aruna's overprotective of me as usual, and Jade essentially uses me as a pillow. Ember keeps abusing the holographic training center in order to distract herself."

"Well, with the tournament coming up, I'm sure the practice will do her good. And you?"

"I'm making sure you keep up with your investigation, and trying to keep my semblance under control. I'm also working with Jaune and Pyrhha on his combat skills. He's a lot better than you'd expect, now, but he still has a ways to go if he wants to have a chance in the tournament."

"Does the Arc boy have a semblance, yet?" Talbot seems bored, back to typing into his laptop and poking his earbud back into the lobe.

"Unfortunately, no, but I'm sure we're close. Pyrhha and I have strong aura manipulation to begin with, so it's been a good process."

/

"Ow," Jaune exclaims as he continues to lie on the ground, having been bashed in the head by the butt end of my rifle: Noctus

"Come on, Jaune: Practical app," I roll my eyes, extending my hand to pull him to his feet. I turn to Pyrhha, seeming concerned off to the side. "I thought you had trained him up to having his aura under his command."

"Not on a whim, Kevin," Pyrhha sighs. "Someone who trained with little weapon access like you did might have built up a strong aura endurance, but Jaune only had his unlocked during Initiation."

"Yeah, I haven't really been…working on it…either," Jaune rubs the back of his head, glancing at the ground.

"Cramming over four years of aura training and weapons work into one year is tough work, Jaune," I offer. "I've had my own formal training conducted in only two years, and I only was able to make it due to some other circumstances. You're well off, all considered: Surrounded by some of Remnant's best, and with two strong teachers."

"I guess."

"Let's go again," Pyrhha suggests, pushing herself off of the wall and retrieving her weapons.

"If that's what you wish," I step back, folding up Noctus and collapsing my shield. "I'm going to head off to bed. Please, remember about Cardin downstairs. The man still needs some support. No one but us really talks to him."

"Right," Pyrhha nods. As I head to the door, I notice Pyrhha walk over to the edge of the roof, tapping her rifle/spear/sword against the wall of the dorm building. I smirk, knowing that Pyrhha is as much a surrogate mother to the entire group as Aruna is for my team.

/

"Kevin? How's the investigation going?" Jade drums her fingers against my chest.

"Talbot is working hard. Team TANK is a bit out of it, but so is every other team. They weren't here for the Breach, but they're work as an investigative detail is astounding. I'm sure they'll be able to work up something or another," I sigh.

"Right. Who are they again?"

"Talbot's someone who excels at hand-to-hand combat and blending in, with some investigative ability. A camouflage semblance tends to give someone that ability. Abraham's a master sniper and interrogator. Nicole is their brute: A woman with a large hammer-staff. Kenneth is an engineer: excels in creating stuff and zapping people."

"A nice group?"

"A nice group. Second-years," I confirm, pulling her closer. "I'll introduce you."

"That'd be nice. The nightmares are still present."

"It'll be okay, Jade. It'll be okay," I rest my chin on top of her head as she curls her arm around my neck.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N WHat? 3 followers already? sweetness :)

/

"What's with the black powder, Kenny?" I glance at his work station as he continues to glance at the stuff through a microscope, analyses running across the screens beside him.

"It was left in the CCT: after that Ruby girl's brawl with that woman. People are calling her the Black Queen, because of the symbol left on the monitors," he explains, not looking up at all.

"How do people know about that?" I step up next to him, taking some of it in between my fingers.

"Information slips, regardless of who tries to contain it," Kenny explains. "I checked some old files on the subject: this person is new to the game. What she's trying to accomplish, I don't know, but maybe her material will give us a clue."

"And has it given any? Clues, I mean," I wipe off the powder and pull up a chair for myself.

"Nope: More questions, actually. This stuff is _dust_. It's extremely refined, but it is definitely dust. I've never seen anything like it. I read over Ruby's reports again—Thank you, Talbot, for hacking into the servers to get them—and I agree with Abraham: This woman fights well for using a borrowed power."

"Borrowed power?"

"Abraham's idea: Ruby was right in that the glass was not her semblance. Dust infusion, however refined, allowed that woman to create weaponry from the dust infused into her clothes. It's not any innate power, and as it hasn't been seen before, I can only assume that it's a new thing. _This_ dust, if I'm correct, has the structural integrity and abilities necessary to pull off such a feat."

"So we're just looking for someone who has access to this special dust? I've never seen black dust before." A beep goes off from one of the monitors.

"Oh, well that's because it didn't exist before," Kenny explains as he turns to the computer. "This stuff is a chemical mix of all of the other types of dust: refined and compressed into this form. The facility needed to do such a thing, and all the resources, from what I can gather…"

"Lines up with the string of thefts of Schnee-funded dust-shops across Vale."

"This 'Black Queen' who is our opponent? She's strong, or at least the organization behind her is."

"Did you tell Ozpin any of this?"

"Of course. This stuff is powerful. Like: Power all of Beacon for a week powerful.

"Or level a city?"

"I've tested the more volatile capabilities: It seems to be pretty stable, actually. Is your team competing in the tournament?"

"Of course. I'm also going to watch the team TANK versus CFVY fight that everyone wants to see. Box versus box," I shrug, knowing the preferred weapons of both team leaders.

"Yeah. I'm still wary of what's in the box," Kenny clicks his tongue as he steps away from the lab table. "See you later, yeah?"

"Sure."

/

 **A/N See, normally this is where I'd start off with the Vytal Tournament arc or something, buuuuuuut fuck that. So much fight writing and whatever. Summary of what would essentially be happening:**

Qualifying rounds: People compete in partnerships for the tournament. Qualifiers is a round of a shit-ton of grimm, coming in five waves of increasing difficulty. Kevin and Jade do this with ease, as so many other teams, although a few come short.

Kevin/Jade: Make it to quarterlies (8 teams left). Get rekt by some other team.

Jaune/Pyrhha: Jaune proves his worth by fighting his way up to the semi-finals (4 teams left) before losing to Weiss/Ruby. Pyrhha would've confessed to Jaune at some point during this, although Kevin probably wouldn't know.

Aruna/Ember: Didn't even bother trying out. Found more excitement by taking another shadowing mission into grimm land.

Cardin/team: Cardin taps into his rage for his first victory, but his team's overall improvement carry them well into the tournament, earning some respect, but still generally considered horrible people despite their niceties.

Mercury/Emerald: Go just farther than Cardin before "losing" the next round. Neptune voices the fact that he is confused by them. He was on the yearbook committee this year for Haven and doesn't recognize them from school photos.

CFVY/TANK: Brawl it out in an exhibition match (like those halftime shows, but with guns!). TANK loses, being of a more investigative team than a fighting one, but last a long time.

First Years: Ruby/Weiss take first. A group from Mistral takes second. An Atlas group takes third.

Second Years: Coco/Fox take first. Talbot/Kenny take second. Vacuo takes third.

Third/Fourth Years: yeah not my problem

/

"…And those are our winners for this year's Vytal Tournament!" the announcer proclaims, surrounded by cheering from the entire stadium. As the cheering starts to die down, and teams RWBY, JNPR, BYRN, CFVY, and TANK all come together for a round of celebratory hugs and congratulations, the lights shut down.

"Is that supposed to happen?" I glance at where Talbot should be positioned. Hard to see with no lights, but the emergency overheads come on momentarily.

"I don't think so. Cortana?" he looks down at his scroll, where the hologram of the blue woman is flashing in and out of the screen, her words scarce and jumbled.

"What's going on?" Jade wonders as the rest of the crowd murmurs. These ramblings are quickly replaced with fearful screams and panic as an explosion goes off.

"Please remain calm!" the announcer shouts over the speaker system.

"Protect the spectators!" Ruby demands.

"We have no weapons!" Abraham protests.

"We have our best weapon right here," Jaune pounds his fist to his chest. "Our auras. Now do as she says and protect the spectators." The blonde knight's white aura lights up around his as he runs into the crowd. All of us nod to each other before spreading out. Other hunters-in-training seem to have had similar sentiments, everyone spread out so that we could cover as much as possible. Civilian screams from outside draw our attention to the main entrance, which promptly explodes, releasing a swarm of…Atlesian Knights.

"What the hell?" I surge forward, being one of the closest hunters, flaring my purple aura as I jump at the lead robot, driving my fist into its faceplate before being fired on by the ones behind it. Jade appears behind me in a flash, slicing through the robots with some work: They're somewhat tougher than the grimm, it seems. Other hunters-in-training join us, pushing back the robots as they try and fire into the crowd and cause general distress. The thudding sounds of weaponry striking the outside of the dome strike fear into the people, which I channel into a forward burst against the androids, and they all fall outside of the stadium. I charge out with the other students, curious as to what was going on.

"I thought these things were put here to _protect_ us," Ruby murmurs.

"Damn," Talbot appears beside me, scroll still in hand. "Cortana said that something is wrong with the CCT before she…shut down. It's affecting her downloaded AI, too."

"Think it's running on the communication channels?"

"Whatever virus the Black Queen put to work, it's clearly activated," Talbot hardens his expression, typing into his scroll before putting it away. "We have to detain the Atlas security detail and get to the CCT. This downloaded version of Cortana is only the core processes, so it should be free of whatever's going on."

"Did you hear that, Ruby?" I look back into the entrance hallway, which is considerably wider than it used to be.

"Destroy robots, got it," she balls her hands into fists.

"Don't go Sonic on us just yet," Talbot points to the sky. From the locker room building, a wave of rocket lockers descend towards the large stadium that's on the Beacon grounds. And just in time, too, as the robots causing destruction outside seem to have noticed us. A few of the knights get stomped on by the lockers as they land in the ground below us.

"Jade, Pyrhha, Kevin, and Ruby will clear a path," Jaune voices his idea, jumping down with the rest of us to the ground. "Talbot, Weiss, and some others will try to reach the CCT. Abraham can provide support fire on the Beacon grounds. Yang, Ember, and Team CFVY need to focus on the Paladins and Knights from here outward. The rest of us will protect the civilians."

"Agreed," Ruby collects her scythe as everyone else also weapons up. "Are the ships not doing anything?"

"The weapons systems are human operated," Kenny explains. "The Atlesian Knights on board and the crew are probably duking it out."

"Let's resolve this before those things start to fire at us," Aruna appears from the entrance above us. "You guys go. We'll move the civilians from the stadium into the central Beacon buildings for safekeeping."

"Ironwood wanted to remove human lives from the field of battle," Talbot sighs. "Looks like he's paying the price for it."

"That doesn't matter right now. We need to contain the situation," Ruby steps forward. Behind her, the rest of us start to divide into Jaune's suggested teams.

"Let's rock this," Yang slams her fists together as we charge down the hill.


	4. Chapter 4

"Go go go go go!" I shout, leaping into combat and stabbing the nearest Knight with my bayonet. Jade and Ruby dash in front of me, whirling their respective blades and cutting through the next few. As we continue to clear a path, Talbot, Weiss, Blake, and Ren stay hidden around the corner.

"Paladin," Pyrhha warns as she removes the arms of one Knight that tried to ambush her. The robots have a command center in both their head and their chest, so it's easier to just remove the attacking bits.

"Get back," I hook the remaining Knight with the stock of my rifle and bring it into the alley with me, tearing it to shreds with Sivir. Silence blankets the street as we wait in hiding, the Paladin moving carefully down the once-busy area. Luckily, most of the people on the campus grounds are at the stadium or in their dorms, and the Atlesian army doesn't seem to care about what they can't see.

The telltale sounds of Weiss' glyphs reach my ears, and I figure that she travelled to the roof for a better vantage point. As the Paladin—presumably operated by a Knight—passes us, one of its scanners picks up our presence. We leap into action immediately, Pyrhha flinging her shield and disabling one of the eyes while I use my gunfire to do the same. Ruby appears at the Paladin's legs, dashing back and forth and weakening the joints while Jade dances around the machine, tearing at any visible weakpoint she can find. The cockpit is unfortunately too tight for Jade to be able to simply phase through and disable it.

I rush forward to avoid getting incinerated by a flurry of missiles as Ruby jumps back from getting stomped on. This sort of process repeats for a while before the Paladin drops to the floor. Once we all regroup, an alarm goes off (finally?). The slightest inkling of some sort of bubble seems to be pouring out from the tip of the clocktower.

"What is that?" I point to the strange thing as the other mobile hunters-in-training come up to us.

"Beacon shutdown protocol: In the face of an internal threat, Beacon locks itself down, sealing itself off," Talbot explains.

"We can't have that. We need to move before that thing closes us off from the city," Ruby chambers another round into her gun-scythe.

"Agreed," Weiss looks back at her makeshift team. "Let's move." All eight of us move out while everyone else spreads out to contain the robots within the campus grounds. We make a mad dash for the closest edge of the Beacon campus, Ruby occasionally using her semblance to move ahead and disrupt any particularly dense group of Knights as they roam around. The barrier drops faster than expected, forcing us to push ourselves to the limit as we dive under the falling field and find ways to save ourselves from falling to our deaths off of the cliff: Normally one arrives at Beacon by airship.

We climb all the way down the cliffs, which are luckily not actually very tall. Weiss speaks up, "My group will try the silent route. You guys feel free to take the more direct route to the CCT. If we're lucky, they'll be too focused on getting at you to notice us."

"Oh boy, getting shot at from all directions," I sigh. "Gonna need some of this." I direct my hand at Weiss and siphon off her negative energy. The other three members of her group seem to be relatively stable, giving off very little. I direct the collected shadows around my shield, ignoring the tingling across my arm. "Okay, let's go."

The fighting is vicious and difficult, us not expecting so many troops to be within the city rather than surrounding Beacon. The planes above us are still moving erratically, as the human crew no doubt continues to try and fight off the Knights. Still, it's made easier by Pyrhha's semblance, capable of grouping a bunch of Knights together at once and incapacitating them while I crush them using my own semblance. Jade seems to have picked up one of the Knight's plasma rifles and is using it to fight them while her semblance recharges.

Unfortunately, despite all this, we're all surrounded on all sides, having been caught up fighting one Paladin and unable to make progress towards the CCT. We all stand back to back, firing off semblances and weaponry everywhere we can. As a farther-away Paladin barrels down the street at us, something beeps on my scroll. I quickly take it out and attach it to a groove on the inside of Sivir's gauntlet. The image of a blue woman appears on the screen.

"Cortana?" I notice Jade perk up and look at me in response to my sudden speech.

"Someone has activated the Delta Initiative," Cortana replies with level-headed urgency.

"What? That can't be good. Who?" I ask of the AI. "Wait, how'd you get on my scroll?"

"Talbot uploaded me to your scroll just in case. As to the other question—."

"Salutations!" the voice of a certain robo-woman comes from above right as a series of glowing green-black blades slice through the closest set of Knights. The Emerald Hydra: Penny's weapon. As she jumps down, the blades separate into even more than the original eight and turn into a tornado of slicing death upon the enemies. To my surprise, a certain level of electricity seems to be surrounding her arms.

While the Emerald Hydra moves independently of her, sweeping across as a sixteen-headed shuriken against the opposite side of the battlefield, she walks calmly forward, sidestepping as necessary to avoid getting pierced by any rounds and reaching up, planting her hand firmly on the "forehead" of each Knight as she passes. They seem to crumple to the ground soon after, shutting off, but not before flashing the Delta symbol over their visors. It's preferable to the Black Queen chess piece that was flickering across the faces earlier.

With the added support of Penny, most of the Atlesian army falls and stops moving. Catching our breaths, everyone regroups in the center, Jade and I resting on each other as everyone else supports themselves in their own way. Penny seems perfectly fine, though, standing ramrod straight as usual.

"That…was…so cool!" Ruby pumps her fists into the air, beaming. "When did you become a robo-angel, Penny? Just smiting all the possessed robots, hyah!"

"My father activated the Delta Initiative. It was a back-up to prevent anyone from hacking into the Atlesian Knights," Penny explains simply. "I do hope this alleviates your worries about me, Kevin."

"Wha—oh, that? Nah, it's no biggie," I cough into my slightly-torn jacket and wave it off. "You need direct contact to override the hack?"

"That's correct."

"She can wipe Cortana of the corruption! Right?" Ruby glances between us.

"The reprogramming is specific to the Atlas military. I'm not sure it will work against the CCT," Penny shakes her head as she wipes the metal shards from her hands. The many blades of Emerald Hydra move on their own from where they're scattered across the street (most of them impaled in a robot or two), folding up and returning into a singular heavy blade before compacting and disappearing into the hatch in the girl's upper back.

"Talbot's copy of my AI must be used to replace the version controlling the CCT," Cortana speaks up from my scroll, still on my arm. "It is advisable that we muscle our way into the CCT and hold it open for Talbot's group. Penny can keep them all safe if she locates them."

"Agreed. The assistance of the Cortana AI should be enough to keep you all coordinated and safe," Penny nods before walking off right towards the Paladin that rounds the corner. ***Cue epic battle music: Like the 2007 Transformers movie*** I glance around and look for the source of the sudden noise: a mix of hard bass and epic violins, before I realize that it's coming from my scroll.

"Cortana," I scold, looking down at the AI's image.

"It seemed appropriate," she shrugs before shutting off…or at least not appearing on my screen anymore. The sound of bells reaches my ears, and I turn to see Jade with her hand covering her mouth. I can't help but smile at this before PYrhha grabs our attention.

"The goal remains the same: Let's go," Pyrhha pumps her weapon in the air as a rally before disappearing into the alley, clearly still not up for a full confrontation while her semblance cools down.

"Cortana, link up to our other scrolls so that you can communicate openly with them, too. The Knights are definitely still after us, and we could use the support now that you're online or whatever," I glance down at my arm.

"On it," the sound comes from my scroll as I follow the others.


	5. Chapter 5

"Three o'clock," Cortana informs me. Wordlessly, I aim Noctus in that direction and fire twice before going right back to work, ignoring the sound of the robotic body falling to the ground. Pyrhha runs and braces herself from the punch from the Paladin, keeping it grounded to her shield while Jade cuts against the arm. The Paladin raises its other fist, only to have its shoulder joint sliced up by Ruby's scythe while I jump up and swing myself up to the back panel and start tearing at it with my buzzsaw/shield and rifle.

"Preparing Delta Initiative Core Override," Cortana speaks up as I kick the panel. The Paladin responds by spinning its torso, flinging me off as well as slamming Pyrhha into a wall before bringing both fists into the ground. Ruby rebounds from the attack, deflecting it with her scythe as she backs away.

"Core Override ready for upload," the AI informs me.

"What?" I drag myself to my feet after being thrown onto the street. In response, my scroll deploys the small USB stick at the bottom. I look between my scroll and the Paladin. "Oh…I don't think there are any USB ports on the outside of that thing."

"There's a technology store a block away, with a special tool. Upload the Override into that tool and we can perform almost the same thing as the Delta Initiative."

"Where did you even get the coding?"

"Penny was in proximity long enough to download it discreetly," Cortana explains. "Now go." My scroll opens up with a small map showing me what store she was talking about.

"Uh…I'll be right back, guys! Just hold on!" I slip Noctus into my leg holster and take off towards the shop. I smash through the glass window and run to the back, finding the object Cortana was talking about and taking it out onto the nearest table. Wordlessly, I take my scroll and plug it into the back of the device, which appears to be a really thick knife handle, deploying a one-foot long blade from one end. The small lines of lights across the device glow momentarily in a red color before turning green.

"Upload complete. Stabbing this into the core of any Atlesian technology should render it useless, at least temporarily."

"Great," I put my scroll back on my arm, picking up what Cortana deemed the Key, and run back out to the others, who seem to have just finished taking down the Paladin.

"And where were you, Kevin?" Pyrhha removes her spear from the cockpit of the machine.

"Cortana gave me instructions for a 'Key,'" I hold up the device. "Apparently this can do the same thing that Penny was doing, although with a bit more of the stabbing." I toss the thing to Jade, who can probably make the most use of it.

"Does it work on the Paladins?" Ruby wonders aloud.

"Yes, it should," Cortana responds from the little girl's scroll. "It will lock down the technology."

"We only have a few blocks to go, let's do this," Pyrhha walks forward, me following closely behind. Jade flips the Key around in her hand in order to get used to the weight. We charge down the street once again, weapons drawn and at the ready. The CCT is in sight, surrounded by a dense mob of Knights and Paladins. Just as Jade's about to go ghost so that I can propel her, a scream breaks out from all of our scrolls. The devices explode, and I flinch to avoid getting glass shards in my eyes, holding my right arm away from me.

"What was that?" Ruby brings herself to her feet. All of our scrolls are on the ground, shattered, with erratic blips of words coming out from them.

"Cortana?" I kneel down and get close to my broken device.

"Signal…proximity…Queen's virus…protect…Talbot," Cortana throws the words at me, using all of the scrolls. The words came jumbled, but the message was clear enough.

"The CCT found this version of Cortana and shut her down. The stabilized and _offline_ version with Talbot is the only option we have. Jade, the Key: break down the Paladins if you can."

"Right," she jumps up and turns ethereal, and I kick her towards the nearest Paladin. After a few seconds of confusion, the thing collapses, a signal for us to charge in again. The slightest notion of negative energy comes from my left, making me aware of Talbot's group being close. Pyrhha and Ruby send their semblances into overdrive, Ruby's speed creating a sudden gale of wind behind her that drags most of the robots to the ground and Pyrhha throws the whole bunch to the side.

With those three occupied in their tasks, I bully my way against the remaining guards around the front door. The Knights that try to stop me get literally frozen in their tracks as I reach the steps. Once I'm in the final stretch to the door, another set of Knights comes from the ceiling and kicks me back. I try my best to ignore the pain in my back after being tossed down a flight of stairs, swinging back up to my feet and channeling the energy from that pain into my shield. A flurry of discs launch forward, knocking Knights to the ground.

Victory seems in reach, until the speaker system surrounding the CCT emits a horrible screeching sound, sending every human reeling as all the robots regroup around the building. Loud thuds accompany panels appearing and locking down around the CCT, but not before the electronic boom of a shockwave of some sort is launched from the building. By the time I can get up and focus enough, the entire facility is blocked off by the horde of Paladins and Knights, as well as its new fresh-built fortifications, turning it into a shell.

"Well, then, that's great," Talbot steps up next to me, briefcase at his side. "You know, I can't upload her without access to the main terminal."

"The copy you put on my scroll exploded," I sigh, wary of the army. That's when I hear the explosion behind us. We all flinch and divert our attention, only to see the smoking wreckage of one of the Atlas ships. And every other one in the sky falling.

"We can't save them," Weiss, downtrodden, observes. "We don't have the power."

"Shit," I kick the ground. Jaune has a similar reaction. The cacophony of crashes and explosions ring out as Jade holds up the key, slamming the meat of her palm into the side of it repeatedly. The slightest beeping sound comes out from it, lining up with a flashing red light on one side.

"This thing must use batteries or something, and it's out of juice," she sighs.

"Where's Penny?" I notice that the ginger isn't in the immediate circle, and neither is Ren. Talbot points to the pair a little ways down the street.

"That screech sent a shockwave with it: Disabled any technology in the area besides the Atlas robots over there. Penny fell down, too, for whatever reason. I'm thinking cochlear implant exploded or something."

"Yeah, let's go with that," I click my tongue before jogging over to the girl on the ground, Ruby right behind me.

"It seems like she's just coming to," Ren informs me, holding the girl's head in his hand and the rest of her body across his lap. "And a lot heavier than I would've thought."

"Well," Ruby rubs the back of her head awkwardly. Luckily, Ren's focus on us means that he doesn't see the flashes of code running across Penny's opening eyes before they solidify into their original color. "Penny!"

"Salutations!" she waves, still prone on the ground.

"Penny, are you okay?" I put my hands into my pockets.

"I'm wonderful!" she brings herself to her feet. "I lost the Delta Initiative powers, though."

"The CCT wiped them, somehow?" I inquire.

"It appears so. Those droids are all only guarding the structure now, it seems. I don't think they will attack unless we do, now."

"They seemed pretty bent on destroying us earlier," Ren comments. "What changed?"

"Us being close to getting into the CCT, with Cortana," I inform him of my most likely guess. "Whatever program corrupted the CCT and made it send a signal out to every Atlesian military unit was overwritten by the CCT itself. The program changed the directive of 'destroy' to 'protect' in order to keep itself from losing."

"Makes sense," Ren stands up as the rest of the group gathers around us. "What can we do?"

"We can't do anything, at the moment. It takes four people in general to take down a Paladin, and there are twelve of them right there—and however many more in the city," Talbot gestures to the group surrounding the CCT.

"But without the CCT, there's no communication with any of the other kingdoms," Pyrhha reminds us. "What are we to do, with no access to help beyond what is already in Vale?"

"Regroup back at Beacon. We'll come back and try to put a perimeter around that thing. I hate to say it, but for right now, this land belongs to the machines," Talbot pinches the bridge of his nose. We have a large congregation of hunters-in-training, but I guess it's not enough to necessarily mount an assault on the CCT. With all the other ever-present dangers, it's hard to get a devotion of resources to this specific task.

"Let's get going, then," Weiss turns on her heel and starts walking back to Beacon.

/

A/N So this is what I imagine the thing with the computers being: Targeting the Atlesian Knights through the communication hub, and turning Ironwood's forces on himself (sort of). The AI/CCT gained a sense of power because of the virus, and now is trying to prevent itself from being changed by the backup copy that Talbot has. So it changes the directive given to the Atlas military.

I based this off of Cinder's line: "It's not about overpowering them: it's about taking what power they have." The Black Dust goes along with this, weakening one of the core commodities that the country functions on and then turning it into a substance that Cinder can control and use.

As for The Key: Think of the modified Epsilon unit that The Meta stabbed Tex in the face with. It's basically that, except it uploads instead of downloads. In this case, it's an experimental product from the store owner. One of those "This invention will make me rich!" type of things. Except this one actually works right. Luckily.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N So yeah, the thing with the robot thing…Partially spawned out of the thought that the specific introduction given to the Knight 2.0 and the Paladins during Season 2 wasn't _only_ for the purpose of sending one loose in Vale and then having the hail mary barrage from the skies in the finale. I mean, it couldn't have, right?

Changelin96: Yep, cliché as fuck. This whole story is actually a series of clichés if you look around. Like, they're everywhere :)

/

"They took my military, Ozpin. Why do we not mount an attack on the CCT and regain control as soon as possible?" Ironwood confronts Ozpin.

"Because it is not so simple: You designed these machines to be able to replace hunters. The CCT shut down the power throughout the city, and all communications. We rely on couriers at the moment to communicate even within the school," the headmaster responds.

"The CCT is a vital system in Vale, and it must be retaken if we are to alert the other kingdoms of this. The Council would not be happy that you are taking this so idly."

"Yes, well, we haven't much of a choice," Ozpin responds, his voice getting closer. "But before we discuss this any further: Kevin, would you like to come inside?"

"Shit," I mutter, looking up at the clocktower window from outside and seeing an amused Ozpin and a surprised Ironwood looking back down at me.

/

"You were one of the people who helped contain the Atlesian Override, correct?" Ozpin inquires, knowing the answer anyway.

"Well no one else was doing anything," I quip.

"We thank you for your efforts, Kevin. What have you learned?"

"The CCT sent out a mass signal: Most likely it had installed a worm into every robo-soldier that had ever contacted the CCT, or moved by jumping from the dropships into the Knights. It took over the programming, marking humans as targets instead of grimm. At least, that was the intention of the bug. Talbot's team thinks that the switch from attacking every human in sight to protecting the CCT was the directive of the corrupted version of the Koru AI."

"Interesting. Was anything gained out of this attack?" Ozpin looks at Ironwood.

"I don't think so. We're still doing a sweep through every key facility to check," the General informs. "The destruction to the city, and the casualties from the confusion, might be all that they wished for, but I doubt it."

"The lockdown of the CCT is a bonus to them: unplanned," I voice my guess. "But regardless, Vale is weak at the moment, with the Dust deficit and all. I hate to say it, but the students are scared."

"I know," Ozpin assures me, "And we're taking precautions. The filter surrounding Beacon protects the Cortana AI, so we can build her up into something to fight that corrupted version." I nod at this, accepting that we can at least create a backup plan.

"Is Penny well?" I turn to Ironwood.

"What do you know about Penny?"

"She's a robot with an aura," I shrug. "It's pretty cool, I gotta admit. But the CCT emitted some program in the shockwave that disabled your Delta Initiative."

"Delta Initiative?" Ironwood raises an eyebrow.

 _He doesn't know? Who created the Delta Initiative, then? Penny's "father"? I guess the partners didn't trust each other very much_. I shake my head. "Never mind. Was she affected in any way?"

"No," Ironwood answers after a pause. "Is there anything else about the assault we need to know?"

"We have the override: I don't know if it will work on the CCT itself, but it seems to work on the Atlesian knights just fine."

"The override?"

"The hijacked version of the Delta Initiative: it runs on batteries," I elaborate. "A copy of Cortana cloned it from Penny during our attempt to retake the CCT. It's essentially a fancy thumb drive, so it wasn't affected by the shockwave. If we can't create a Cortana that can completely combat the corruption, then we can delete it...possibly."

"We will want this override, Kevin," Ozpin requests, although his tone clearly indicates that it's more of an order.

"Talbot and Kenny have it. They're checking if the Delta Initiative's program can work against the AI itself, or if it really does only affect Atlesian weaponry. Since you don't seem to know what it is, either, we have no information as to what it actually targets to get the job done."

/

"They broke Torchwick out?" Ruby exclaims, looking at Jaune.

"They what?" I deadpan, sitting next to the group.

"Blake eavesdropped on the squad of human guards. Torchwick isn't in his cage, anymore," Jaune informs me.

"This is just a mess," Aruna sighs, putting her head down on the table. "I just wanted to be a normal hunter, and now I'm part of this catastrophe."

"Could've been worse. You could've been a civilian with no chance of survival but still be in this catastrophe," I shrug. "I didn't want it, either."

"So they got Torchwick. Anything else?"

"I don't know. Whatever's going on…sucks," Jaune grumbles.

"Ironwood didn't know about the Delta Initiative," I lean over and tell Ruby. "Whoever is Penny's father is a very insightful man, to think of a failsafe like that."

"I think that we should look into the 'who' of the whole thing. We have enough people on the 'what,'" the young team leader voices her opinion.

"Agreed. They're in Vale, at least," I nod. The rest of the day is spent trying to ignore the stuff that happened yesterday, hanging out and pretending to be normal.

/

A/N This is a short chapter, mainly because I have no idea how to go from here to the next event.


	7. Chapter 7

Jaune continues to practice his swordplay, stabbing, jabbing, and thrusting his weapon at an invisible enemy. He dashes forward in a lunge, flaying his sword out in a jab while opening up his defense to the side. He continues his little combo by stepping forward again with a shield bash, flipping his sword grip during this time and holding the blade to an imaginary throat, his left hand open and clawed as if gripping the armor of some enemy. His form is better than average at this point.

The blonde doesn't seem to think so, dropping his sword to the ground with an audible exhale and putting his head in his hands as he sits down on the ground. I take the opportunity to actually speak up and make my presence known from next to the roof entrance.

"Still not satisfied?" I push off from the wall, arms crossed.

"Wha—? Oh, hey, Kevin. What's up?" he plasters his grin over his face.

"Just wondering what you're doing up here. Clearing your head or something?"

"Something like that," Jaune sighs. "I still feel weak in comparison to everyone else."

"That's because you are," I shrug, sitting down next to him. "But you're leaps and bounds above where you used to be. Why are you so stressed about it? You've got a great team supporting you, and you're the Tactician, anyway."

"I want to be strong enough to protect my friends. To be a hero," he rolls back and puts his hands behind his head. "I can't do that if I'm as weak as I am."

"You were weaker before. Physically _and_ mentally. I believe that you have all the capabilities you need to succeed. Pyrhha believes the same, you know."

"Right," Jaune murmurs. "It's just…the thing with the CCT: Makes me realize how useless I am."

"Right, because Jaune Arc: The tactician that devised a basic working plan to solve the CCT hack in a few minutes, is totally useless."

"I guess I did do that, huh?" he chuckles.

"Maybe you're shit, but when it counts, you do your best, and no one can blame you for that."

"So…"

"So stop beating yourself up. I couldn't keep the CCT open so that we could fix everything right away, but it's not the worst thing ever. We will all be fine, as long as we can trust in that notion."

"You're always so annoyingly calm and philosophical…or some word like that," Jaune grumbles.

"Well, having a mental wall installed in my head to prevent me from going into a rage tends to help."

"Pssh, what?"

"Some people, like you and Cardin, can learn to control their emotions on their own, for whatever reason or cause. Me? I was beyond even attempting self-regulation. I tried to rip Aruna's throat out once," I can't help but laugh, comparing the two versions of me. "But I also got a spell approved: To put up a wall between me and my anger. They performed it on me, and now I'm fine. The power of hypnotism."

"Wow."

"Yeah. That's the only reason I'm able to be calm and rational during stuff like this," I pull myself to my feet before offering my hand.

"Thanks for the talk," Jaune rubs the back of his hand as he accepts my help up. "I really needed it, I think."

"No problem," I clap his shoulder. The boy waves as he picks up his weapons and leaves the roof. I sigh, walking out to near the edge and looking up to the night sky. It's beautiful, really.

You know, until you're interrupted by a sudden presence behind you that you recognize.

"Hex," I mutter, not bothering to turn around. She'd shown up once before(ignoring the one time she invaded my dream), to wish me luck in the tournament again.

"Kevin."

"What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you about the CCT."

"What about it?"

"Vale might be robo-city right now, but it's starting to…pool resources."

"What do you mean?"

"The city itself is being drained of its resources: Dust, metal, tech, all that stuff. I can't really fight it without getting shot at. These are all being moved into factories."

"So the corrupted AI is building something," I surmise.

"Or gathering resources so that someone else can build something. We can't assume that the Black Queen hasn't been able to strike some form of a deal with the CCT and gain some power back."

"Is that all?"

"Kevin," an armored hand lands on my shoulder. I turn and catch her large blue eyes. Her long shag of blonde hair, with the one blue streak, hangs over one of those orbs. She seems truly concerned to some degree. I can't help but notice how form-fitting her armor is…and the segmented cleaver-sword on her back. She looks like she's about to continue before I interrupt her with idle conversation.

"What happened to the spear?"

"I, uh…lost it. Got a replacement: Thought I'd try out swords," she shrugs. "You used to be a swordsman too, right?" _Perfect, she's off track_.

"Yeah. I still am, of course, if a little bit modified," I turn to actually face her. "What, you up for a little sparring or something?"

"You just want to see if I'm tough enough to be part of what you think is some cult," she purses her lips and shifts her weight to one side. I hate to say that that expression always looked beautiful on her.

"Maybe," I shrug. "You up for it?"

"Fight me, Rice Fields," she smirks, drawing out her blade from her back. Strange lines of energy seem to course through the length of the weapon.

"Like you could beat me, Pentagon," I slip Noctus from my holster.

/

I don't want to say that I lost to a girl. Well, more like I don't want to say that I lost to my ex-girlfriend. Within five minutes, Noctus is cast aside far away from me, and I'm pinned under Hex, my right arm trapped in her grip and her cleaver/broadsword at my throat. Both of our breaths are heavy after all the work put into trying to stab or slash at each other.

"So…that thing…that I was going to tell you before you…tried to distract me with this little scrimmage?" She smiles knowingly, her eyes bright like a Christmas tree.

"Oh, so you knew," I grimace, glancing to the side.

"Of course I knew. What I was going to say was that I didn't leave you on purpose. I loved you, really, but that fire…put things into perspective for me. I wanted to contact you, but I couldn't," Hex puts her sword to the side. "Do you believe me?"

"Enough, I guess. You haven't really hurt me outside of that…you know, besides straddling me on the roof and holding a sword to my neck," I shrug.

"Wha—oh, oh," she sits up straight and pushes herself off of me. "But you believe me?"

"Yeah," I bring myself to a sitting position.

"Great!" she moves up and brings me into a hug, resting her head on my shoulder. Then she holds me at arm's length, catching my gaze with a smile. "By the way, I think you look good in purple."

"T-thanks. I like the, uh," I gesture to the blue streak in her hair.

"Thanks," she chuckles, glancing down at her lap. "I…should probably go. Can't be seen playing around with a younger man, can I?"

"Oh, it's only eleven months' difference," I wave her off with a smile, bringing on another short fit of laughter. Once it dies down, I can't help but look up at her with a bit of wistfulness. "Happy birthday, Hexanne."

"Thanks, Kev," she grins before turning and hopping off of the roof. With her out of view, I collapse onto my back with a strange sigh of relief and confusion.

"She's really back," I murmur to myself. A smile creeps onto my face as I repeat the phrase, as if saying it makes it more true. "She's _really_ back."


	8. Chapter 8

"So I figure that we gather what we can and send a few people down into the city to investigate what's going on in the factories: Maybe try and replicate the Key, if possible," I suggest, leaning back in my chair. After last night, I found it necessary to act on Hex's information, and figured that Team JNPR is trustworthy enough.

"How do you even know this?" Jaune questions, holding his hand up to emphasize his confusion.

"Well, I…have my sources?" I shrug, trying to avoid the scrutiny of the others in the library. Pyrhha, Jade, Aruna, and Ren all adopt a stance of skepticism.

"I don't think 'Kevin says we need to go into the city on a whim' is going to get approved by Ozpin in any way," Aruna shakes her head.

"Well, 'Kevin has a source that's very trustworthy' might," Hex's voice appears behind me, one arm snaking around my neck and her chin resting on my shoulder.

"Hex, what the hell?" I pop out of my chair, turning with one hand cupping over her mouth and the other pinning her dominant arm to the bookshelf. In response, she calmly leans forward, putting her free hand on my shoulder and pulling me in.

"You need to get into town _now_. The time it takes to get a student mission approved—even if it's Ozpin, since Ironwood is on his back about all of this. Things could be a whole lot worse in that time," the girl whispers.

"What—?"

"Go, okay?" she pushes me off, skittering around the bookshelf. "See you guys later!" She waves to the rest of the crowd before some gloved hand grabs hers and pulls her behind the shelf, out of sight. "Wha—hey!"

The sound of a sword swinging and a whoosh of energy and wind makes me step forward quickly to see what's going on. When I look behind the shelf, there's only a blank aisle, with a book or two on the ground.

"What was that?" Nora chirps. "She seemed cool!"

"That was, uh," Aruna starts to explain, but seems choked up on the words. Jade is pouting, for whatever reason.

"My kinda-ex-girlfriend," I shrug, turning back to the group.

"I thought you hated her, now?" Aruna glances at me with an eyebrow raised.

"She's a bit useful, okay? And she said we need to go down there as soon as possible," I shake my head.

"So…we're trusting the word of some girl?" Pyrhha taps her bracer anxiously.

"She's not some girl. She's an informant. And I trust her," I inform her. "We're going."

"Investigation!" Ember pumps her fist in the air after a laugh.

"Should I tell team RWBY?" Jaune pulls out his scroll.

"We have the Key, and this is only an investigation. We're already geared up, we just need to slip out and get down to Vale," I jerk my head towards the door. Everyone looks between each other before we all file out of the library.

/

"Ren, Jade," Aruna ushers the two of them forward to scout, and they oblige quickly. Our leader flips the dormant version of the Key into a reverse-grip in her hand while Ember checks her golden pistol again. Shredder, her giant machine gun, had been crushed and mangled beyond repair of even salvaging by one of the Paladins during the CCT hack, so she only has her robo-blade and that pistol.

The ninja and the assassin return quickly enough, giving a silent go-ahead with a nod of their heads. We file out, keeping wary for any robot patrols. We find the door, and I tap it before nodding to Jade. The girl vanishes into the street before the door opens from inside.

"Pyrhha, Ren, stay outside and make sure nothing comes near," Jaune goes into the factory.

"Ember," Aruna jerks her head to the other two, and the blonde joins them in patrolling the outside. The rest of us go inside, weapons out.

"So…that's a lot of robots," I gesture to the racks around us, loaded with robot chasses and armor plating.

"You weren't kidding about the city putting resources into the factories," Aruna looks around.

"Think it plans to invade the inner city?" Jade wonders aloud. The current scenario in Vale is that the center of the city has the largest congregation of people, most of the civilians being moved out of the North-western section of the kingdom, where the CCT is. Many have been moved from the outer areas into the more central part surrounding the city center. No one besides the students and faculty of Beacon are up on the cliff that overlooks the Emerald Forest. The general outer ring of the city is full of the hijacked Atlesian Knights.

"Or, if the other plan was any indication: storm and break the outer walls," Jaune voices his own idea.

"Whatever creates more terror," I shrug. "I guess."

"Well, now what?" Nora grips her hammer.

"No no no," Jaune puts a hand on her shoulder. "Now we leave, and come back with more men, right?" He looks to Aruna and me.

"Something like that," I take another picture of the half-built Knights. We'll need proof of anything to get an actual mission approved, obviously. "Talbot and Kenny will be interested in this."

"Let's go, then."

"Yes, let's," Aruna agrees, before a thud rocks the facility. We all freeze before moving to the walls right next to the door.

"Paladin?" Jade mouths at me.

"Maybe," I mouth back as another thud hits. "Same sound." Jade nods before disappearing into the ground. After a few seconds, she lands again, behind me.

"Paladin."

"Just wait for it to pass," I reach back and put my hand on her shoulder, siphoning off a small amount of negative energy just in case. Aruna clicks the button to deploy the blade of the Key. After a long few minutes of silence, we all give a collective exhale, assuming that the threat has passed. I toss the collected sphere of shadow energy into open space and let it dissipate.

"Let's get back to Beacon—," Aruna's interrupted by an explosion from outside, everyone ducking down instinctively.

"Or that could happen," Jaune groans, brandishing his sword.


	9. Chapter 9

"Ooooooh _fuck_!" I run as fast as I can from the Paladin, as I reload Noctus. The thing runs a lot faster than expected (then again, I saw it barrel down a highway once. I shouldn't be surprised). The sounds of metal against metal echoes through the street, imploring me to turn around and see Jade standing victoriously over the Paladin. She rips the Key from the Paladin and jumps back down to street level as both teams BYRN and JNPR set to work on surviving the robot horde.

"What made them attack?" Aruna ducks under one Knight's fist and sweeps its legs out with one of her tomahawks.

"I don't know! They actually seemed to not care until they saw my arm," Ember shrugs, an embarrassed expression on her face.

"Weapons detection?" Pyrhha suggests.

"Could be," I slice the head off of another Knight before sliding my bayonet in between the chest plates. "Let's focus on the 'living' part and ignore the 'why' for now."Jade appears behind me, flourishing the Key before stashing it on her belt.

"It's out of charges," she brandishes her twin gauntlet blades before whirling into action again. Pyrhha clashes all the Knights immediately surrounding her into a pile before Nora drops a grenade on the group from the rooftop. A second explosion: this time towards the border.

"Oh, what now?" I groan, jumping back and pointing my rifle forwards, my shield behind me and gathering energy from my semblance. The robots seem equally confused, pausing their attack momentarily. The dust settles around the explosion site—that being the fortified natural barrier that surrounds Vale—revealing a large hole in the structure, and a black sea of fur behind it.

"Oookay, that's fun," Jaune raises his shield, ushering everyone into a defensive formation facing the grimm. They seem to pad and paw at the opening momentarily, as if checking if it's real or not, before the Alpha beowolf in the front unleashes a battle cry, and the flood swarms in. We're a few blocks down the street, with the small gate between the forest and the mountain barrier between, so we have time to prepare for the assault—however brief.

"I'd recommend using the buildings to our advantage," Pyrhha lines up the sights of her rifle, firing periodically into the oncoming horde.

"Keep them fenced together. Kevin, Nora, and I can wipe out more that way," Aruna flicks her wrist, spawning a small flame by her palm. Meanwhile, I'm locked down, shoulders hunched and hands stretched in a claw-like manner as I gather all the negative energy I can from the grimm. Unfortunately, I'm only able to absorb about a third of the energy they give off effectively, but it's still a major tool for us. I grit my teeth as pain and anger wash over me in intense waves before settling.

"Rawr," I growl, holstering Noctus before pointing my shield forward and firing a barrage of discs alongside Pyrhha's and Ren's gunfire. Once they're pretty close, Ren and Pyrhha jump out to the sides to work on keeping the grimm somewhat contained, Nora dropping a singular grenade at the forefront of the wave. In the disguising smoke, I rear Sivir back and slam it into the ground, pouring out the collected negative energy in a wave of impaling power. More pink explosions riddle the floor as I back up, pulling Noctus out again and peppering the nearest grimm with holes.

This continues for a while until Jaune speaks up, bashing away an ursa's claws before slipping his sword into the vulnerable offender's neck. He points to the opening in the wall, which seems to still be letting in more grimm despite the copious amounts already present. "So, that's kinda making our efforts worthless."

"Jaune, just think of a good plan," Ember slices into a beowolf's throat and kicks it away. The sudden accompaniment of missile barrages and plasma bolts brings my attention back to the streets. Unleashing small bursts of energy, I jump back from the fray to assess the situation. The Knights and Paladins are…fighting the grimm… _and_ us, although we appear to be a secondary concern at the moment.

Ren handsprings over an ursa's head and swings the blade portions of Stormflower into the beowolf below him as Nora hits the same ursa with her war hammer, sending it flying into the Deathstalker. The ursa explodes in a bout of pink energy, its back spines impaling many of the grimm and blinding the deathstalker for Jade to suddenly whirl into it and dismantle the scorpion before returning to Ember's side. My best guess for how that works? Ren's aura manipulation probably set off a sort of energy charge in the ursa when he made contact.

"Aruna, Nora, front and center!" Jaune shouts.

"Oh fuck!" Ember is sent flying backwards, the sound of an explosion accompanying her as she bounces on the street and lands beside me.

"Ember," I grab the back of her jacket and pull her to her feet. The sound of another whistling projectile forces me to snap my head up towards one of the buildings near the hole in the wall. I hold up my shield and project the shadow energy around both of us, shielding us from the explosion at the expense of a small burst of internal pain from my semblance.

"Miss me, kiddos?" Torchwick tips his hat as he fires off another round from his cane—Melodic Cupcake or something like that—towards Jaune, but a sudden flare of his aura took the brunt of the blast and left no damage whatsoever around him and the two people he'd called up to talk to. Nora retaliates almost immediately with a barrage of grenades, which Torchwick spins his cane around to deflect seamlessly. If Torchwick is here, then I can't help but doubt the robots attacking was a simple matter of Ember having a robotic limb. Torchwick must have somehow triggered them to attack, wanting them to go on a rampage through the city for whatever purpose. Since the corrupted Koru AI has conscious control of itself, though, the robots are staying contained to the area, focusing on both grimm and human instead of just human.

"Ow," Jade flips herself back onto her feet after being knocked back from the short girl with the multi-colored hair. Neo or something, who vanishes as a boarbatusk tries to skewer her, the grimm instead barreling towards Jade. She uses her semblance to let the grimm crash into the building behind her.

"Oh boy, more players," I stomp the ground, letting shadow energy flow over the oncoming grimm and halting them in their places as Ren kicks a beowolf outlined in pink into the middle. Like with the ursa, Ren's touch seems to turn the creature into an ordinance, exploding once it's in the middle of the grimm. The entire battle slowly turns into a game of running away from what you can and stabbing what you can't, until the distinct sound of a series of explosions near the border gathers my attention.

From the looks of it, Jaune coordinated Aruna and Nora to cause a strategic avalanche, breaking down more of the natural barrier in order to even out the destruction and seal the hole. Aruna seems to be burning the stones, trying to seal some of the makeshift cover by hardening the dirt. In that distraction, I don't notice the shot from Torchwick's weapon until it's too late to do anything, and with no gathered shadow energy, I can't use that, either.

But apparently there's enough time for a suit of pale blue armor to jump in front of me, a small flare of swirling azure lights accompanying the destruction of the missile. The blonde in the armor turns around and winks at me before unsheathing her cleaver sword—I realize the inscription of Arcane Demolisher on the inside of the hilt—and diving into the fray.

"Hex?" I cock my head to the side as the sixteen blades of Emerald Hydra bear down on the grimm nearest to Jaune. The owner of said weapon slams her feet into an ursa before it can swing its claws at Nora, drawing her blades back to herself to eviscerate the grimm beneath her.

"Penny?" I question aloud again, leaping and drawing Noctus to impale the stampeding beowolf nearby, twisting the bayonet to fling the body into the next grimm. A visible explosion of a confrontation between a blue and an orange capsule of energy lights up the sky before Neptune appears, his weapon mid-transformation before the blade swings and rips through another grimm's head. Not soon after, two golden apparitions detonate inside of the mass of grimm, and a distinct red staff slams into the body of a boarbatusk, causing it to actually bounce on the ground, coming back up so that the blonde owner of the tool can swing it again and bat the grimm away like a baseball.

"And Sun and Neptune," I sigh, internally glad that we have more backup, and confused at their presence. The rest of the battle goes pretty smoothly, all considered. After all, a sudden extra four hunters can do a lot against the grimm. Soon, all of the grimm are gone, and considering that they'd trashed most of the Knights and even the Paladins in the area, there's no other threat besides Torchwick and Neo. I can see Neo flitting between whacking Jade with her parasol and kicking Pyrhha in the knee, but no sign of the well-dressed ginger.

/ **(A/N This is the beginning of having third-person POV sections in this story, as there'll be sections of story where Kevin's nosy personality** _ **won't**_ **let him be involved in everything that occurs).**

"That was epic," Sun exclaims as he stashes his staff.

"Sensational!" Penny responds with equal enthusiasm as the rest of the group gathers together, still somewhat on edge for more grimm or Atlas military in hiding.

"Forget about me?" Torchwick's voice comes from one of the farther away buildings, carrying across the streets that are filled with the rising black smoke of decaying grimm. Everyone turns to the sound, aware of the short silver blade held at a person's neck. Adjusting to the light, it's clear that it's Kevin, wincing as the blade pokes at his throat. Aruna squints her eyes and notices that her childhood's friend is without his rifle. Neo appears next to Torchwick, tossing said weapon down to the street. Jade suddenly bursts forward with her semblance, catching and cradling Noctus as she backs away again, keeping her eyes on the pair of bad guys.

"You," Hex's voice comes out low and shaky, her shoulders tense as she draws Arcane Demolisher again.

"Normally, this is where I'd make demands for a trade," Roman shrugs, holding the blade closer to Kevin's neck enough to draw a drop of blood. Aruna and Jade both grit their teeth, the former actually bearing her pearly whites to the enemy in a snarl. "However, I have everything I could want at the moment: my freedom, one of your more powerful students, the joy of seeing confusion and anger written on all of your faces. I hate that the destruction of your border was so quickly fixed, but oh well. So, I think I'm just going to leave with my prize."

"Like hell you would," Kevin growls, dark shadows surrounding him briefly before exploding, pushing Torchwick backwards. Almost immediately, Neo flashes in, grabbing the teen before he can make any sort of escape and holding the tip of her parasol to his throat in turn, peeking around his shoulder to smirk at both him and the hunters-in-training below.

Roman pulls himself to his feet, shaking his head in frustration as he pats down his coat. "We're out of here." He swiftly draws Melodic Cudgel and fires towards the group. Jaune pushes himself to the forefront of the eleven students and yells, raising his shield and flaring his aura. The defensive bubble seems to expand, covering everyone and blocking the entirety of the explosion. Whatever just happened is _not_ a normal function of aura…at least not to that degree. The dust cloud gives way to a leaping Hex and Aruna, weapons drawn as they both come bearing down on the pair of white-coated enemies.

The area surrounding Roman and Neo explode in a flurry of shattered glass as three blades clatter onto the rooftop. Hex draws herself back up slowly as the remaining nine students below look on with concern.

"Did they just—," Jade starts, tears gleaming in her eyes.

"Kevin," Aruna shudders with apprehension, whispering the name as if its utterance would bring her friend back.

" _Damnit!_ " Hex screams as she lifts up her sword with the blade facing down and slams it into the roof, surrounded in swirling blue light. The weapon cleaves straight through the layers of brick and steel, its energy echoing through its path and causing a small series of explosions before hitting the floor. The sound of Arcane Demolisher clattering against the ground, accompanying the rumbling debris, settles with all the pulverized material and dust.

"We're headed to your headmaster. _Now_ ," the blonde suddenly drops down, more of the building falling apart under her feet until she reaches the ground floor. She brings her weapon back into its slot on the back of her torso armor before stalking off towards Beacon. The remaining members of the hijacked Atlesian army watch the group warily, but don't attack for whatever reason.


	10. Chapter 10

"Ozpin, we're going after him," Hex seethes as Ozpin sits calmly at his desk. The others in the room are worried, evident by their shifting feet and sidelong glances at the nineteen-year-old with the giant broadsword that had destroyed an entire side of a building.

"We have no information at this time to act on, Miss Winters," the headmaster replies, a hardened mask covering his own concern at losing one of the more interesting first-year students. "On another note, you don't even go here. You're trespassing."

"Wha—," Hex starts, interrupted by the slight laughter from Ember and Sun. "That's not important! Kevin's gone, and he's in the enemy's hands! We can't allow that to stay that way."

"Miss Winters, I must ask this of you: Are you speaking from a strategic standpoint, or a simple need of having your old friend back?" Ozpin sighs. Hex, unable or unwilling to answer, stomps her foot and goes to leave the office. Right before she can slam the door shut, the headmaster speaks up again. "When information arises on the matter, I'll be sure to alert you to it, Miss Winters. Patience."

The other students quickly file out of the office as well, flagging down the armored blonde.

"H-Hex, look: I want him back too. He's my friend, too," Aruna puts a hand on the girl's shoulder. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to drive myself insane and go on a rampage to do it. Ozpin's right: we have no information to act on."

"I just…I'm…scared," Hex admits before biting her lip.

"We all are," Jade answers, crossing her arms in front of her. "He was my first friend, and we don't know what's going to happen to him. But, I have hope that we will find him and save him from this." Hex nods at this, turning and walking away again.

/ A/N Back to first person.

"Ow, _fuck_ , why'd you have to do that!?" I scream, glaring up at Torchwick as he draws his cane back, wiping the blood off of the end of it with a handkerchief. I spit the blood from my mouth to the side.

"Because, _kid¸_ you haven't answered any of my questions," he grabs the collar of my shirt and pulls me in so that I have to look him in the eye. "And I don't like not having answers."

"You and me both, pal," I spit back, straining against the bonds that keep me stuck in the metal chair. We're in the middle of a warehouse, the windows spray-painted so that nothing can get out from the inside, and boxes of weaponry all around the edges of the interior. From some of the sounds outside, I guess I'm in the middle of an area controlled by the White Fang and Torchwick.

"I'll ask again: What do you _know_ ," Roman drops his cane against my vulnerable knee, sending shooting pains up my leg. It looks like he drew blood…again.

"I know _nothing_! That's why I was investigating. To learn," I growl, taking the negative energy from the pain in my leg and spitting a sphere of the energy back at Torchwick. The thing detonates, sending him flying back with a grunt. I would've stored the energy to try and break my bonds, but I'd tried to before to no avail. Braided metal wire, handcuffs, and duct tape together tend to make escape traditionally impossible. The tape and wires that wrap around my torso were added after I'd escaped using my semblance before.

"You must know something: How many are looking into us? What does Ozpin know? See what you can possibly offer me in order to save your own life?" Roman taps his weapon lightly against my other knee, leaning forward and looking me in the eye.

"I offer you nothing, criminal bastard." Roman steps back, raising his cane for another strike.

/ **(Third-Person Again)**

"Jade?" Aruna opens the door to Kevin's partition of the team room. The brunette in question is curled up in the covers, clutching a pillow and burying her face in it. Her long hair is cascaded all around the bed. Seeing this, the team leader strides over to the side of the bed, squatting down to be on eye level with the ex-assassin.

Aruna gently pats the head of the girl, pushing some of the stray hair out of her face. Jade moves in her sleep, squeezing the pillow harder before releasing, looking over it and at the redhead.

"Jade, are you okay?" Aruna questions, concern evident in her eyes.

"I miss him," Jade mumbles, her voice catching on the last syllable. She covers her lower face with the pillow.

"We all miss him," Aruna consoles, reaching out and putting a hand on her shoulder. "But why are you in his bed?"

"He…I…I used to come to him for comfort, after the Breach. He kept the nightmares away."

"He did, huh?"

"He protected me, I guess. He was my first friend….well, the first one that I made by myself."

"And he'll come back, don't worry. Trust me: he'd never leave a friend in need alone for long."

/

A/N This chapter is short, meh. The intention here was to establish how Kevin's disappearance will affect the team and Hex, and what's happening to Kevin with Torchwick. Next chapter will probably follow CRDL and either RWBY or JNPR into some things that must be checked out: Solving the CCT and how Torchwick acquired a Paladin to begin with.


	11. Chapter 11

"I believe that having the son of a weapons company, and the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, working together on this investigation will be most beneficial," Ozpin explains to the fuming heiress. Cardin seems impassive to the whole thing, but to Ozpin—the man of masks—the nervousness of the situation was evident. After all, a reformed bully working with the group that hated his own would not work out in most situations. But, given the pressure of a missing student, and with Torchwick returned—somehow—from his cell, the headmaster feels that the two teams can work together.

"I am _not_ working with that _barbarian_ ," Weiss shouts, pointing at the chestnut-haired man.

 _Or, maybe not_ , Ozpin groans internally.

"I think that the threat of someone taking weapons that can level a building is more important than your hatred of me," the Winchester replies flatly. "Either that, or someone is _giving_ our enemies these weapons. You should keep in mind that if this is still continuing, we might have a serious problem. Paladins roaming all over the city of Vale is hard to deal with already. Giving them human pilots with a lust for destruction can't be much better." Weiss backs up a step, still tense at the shoulders, but clearly taking the former bully's words into consideration.

"So, are we going to see what's going on or are we going to argue all day?" Dove pipes up.

"Let's solve this mystery," Yang slams her fists together with conviction. Ozpin can't help but smirk at Cardin's ability to contain the situation, rather than escalate it.

"You're going to start in Atlas: One of the ships taking the students back will bring you as well. Ironwood and Penny will remain here, but you will bring a message to the second-in-command there, so that they know the situation here."

"I'll tell my father as well: He might be able to send support," Cardin crosses his arms in front of him.

"Everything you will need," Ozpin slides a folder over the desk. Ruby snatches up the folder, saluting to Ozpin as she leaves the office. The other seven students leave after her.

/

"I hate this so much," Kenny complains, tinkering with the suit of armor some more.

"It would be most beneficial for me to have an autonomic copy of myself to push my way into the CCT," Cortana explains from the monitor beside him.

"But creating a shielded robotic entity that's capable of fighting is _hard_ ," the engineer connects two more wires. "Even the Atlas military drones have constant signals going in and out."

"The Atlas military drones are banned from using Core Adaption AI," Cortana continues. "A singular unit such as this is not necessarily against those rules, especially since my program will be removed from this machine as it enters the CCT."

"Fine, fine, but what's going to happen to it once the CCT is online again? We've already upgraded you into a powerful AI with more capabilities than a CCT operator needs. I'm still confused as to how AI work."

"I am a singular program, capable of uploading my influence to other devices: I'm only capable of observing and analyzing in that state, essentially. The Corruption code was uploaded to both AI within the CCT: Cortana and Koru. We're twins in that only our personality cores are different. Beacon took me out and gave me to Talbot to analyze the program, leaving Koru to be affected by the Corruption. In a sense, these events only prove the necessity of having a backup AI within the system."

"So…you'll have to kill your 'sister' in order to reclaim the CCT?"

"Something like that. To an extent, destroying the CCT and rebuilding another one might be a more viable option."

"We're already working on setting up a temporary station of communications," Kenny shrugs. "This robot thing…what do you want to call it?"

"Hmm…" the AI feigns musing over the decision. "Rescue." Kenny steps back from the current chassis, which is being built after some of Cortana's specifications.

 **A/N I'm not going to try and describe this without actually flat-out mentioning it: Just look up "Iron Man Rescue" which is essentially female iron man, and color it dark-blue and teal.**

/

"I'm going to kill you, and if someone's stupid enough to be your friend, I'm going to kill them, too," I seethe at Torchwick, who laughs as Neo twists my arm even further. In the last few days, they'd been torturing me at random times throughout the day, feeding me the bare minimum level of food and water in the form of starchy bread and dirty tap.

"This is just fun, now, to be honest, but maybe you'll still talk about something useful, instead of empty threats," Roman swings his cane around his finger before catching it again. "Not that I don't mind smacking you around, kiddo."

"Well I mind _greatly_ ," I growl, doing my best to ignore a pointed parasol digging into my ribs. To my luck, my semblance's requirements had increased my pain threshold immensely. If not for that, I would probably be gone by now. I'd already proved to myself that there's nothing nearby to help my case: No place where civilians might overhear some screams, no chance of being able to reach out to grab something, nothing like that. The most I could possibly do is charge up my semblance as much as possible during a beating and _maybe_ use it to free myself. With just my semblance, though, I don't feel like I can exactly stand up to the man. He could fight off Blake Belladonna from team RWBY and Sun consecutively, and they had their weapons. I don't.

"That's kinda why I'm doing it," Torchwick paces around my chair, bopping me in the head with his cane. "I really would like to know why you were in robo-ville the day I nabbed you, though. What were you looking for, kiddo?"

"A giant stick to shove up your ass," I reply, gritting my teeth as he brings his cane down on my knee.

"Wrong," he imitates a buzzer noise. "But I enjoy the humor. It makes me hate you even more, which makes this a lot more fun." He cracks his weapon against the side of my head, knocking me unconscious.

/

A/N I probably won't bring Kevin up for a while now. Blah blah Kevin plus Torture minus Kneecaps=pain the end. I've established a series of missions, now: Team BYRN (I haven't mentioned them, really, but they're temporarily renamed BHRY, or Berry, using Hexanne) looking for Kevin. Team TANK still on the CCT thing. Team CRDL and RWBY focusing on the weapons (like the Paladin from Torchwick). Team JNPR and CFVY will get their own thing in a bit.

You might've noticed some mentions of Jaune doing some stuff with his aura, even though it's been established that he's terrible at using it. Semblances, bucko. Next time!


	12. Chapter 12

"Still working on your team leader's semblance, huh?" Coco leans against the wall of the training room.

"I think we understand it enough. Getting it to trigger is the hard part," Jaune pants, leaning on his sword.

"His semblance is an aura, funnily enough," Ren explains. "Creating a bubble of energy that amplifies whatever his aura is currently doing for anyone else within the field."

"Quite the team player, huh?" Coco puts a hand on her hip.

"Realistically he could also put his semblance into an aura-empowered hit and cause a small shockwave instead," Nora taps her chin in thought.

"I think the protection and healing amplification is a more useful aspect," Pyrhha responds before turning to team CFVY. "Was there something you needed from us?"

"Ozpin has team TANK and that Penny girl working on the CCT, and teams RWBY and CRDL are off on that weapons investigation. Team BYRN—or BHRY **(A/N BHRY, pronounced Berry, is Aruna, Hex, Ember, and Jade. Hex in place of Kevin while they get themselves together and work on finding him)** —whatever, is too scrambled to focus on anything but reassembling itself, so the headmaster wants us to work on something else: Something called The Pit," Coco lifts her sunglasses. "Ever heard of it?"

Despite the shrugs and quizzical looks going around, the sudden tenseness in Ren's shoulders doesn't go unnoticed by Velvet's watch, and Fox's high mastery over his aura lets him see the minute changes in the boy's body at the mention of the name. However, neither one of them bring it up as Jaune voices his ignorance of the topic.

"What's The Pit? Sounds like a crappy club," he chuckles.

"Ozpin only told us to be prepared for anything that happens. Apparently part of the problem is finding the place."

"Where do we start?" Pyrhha wonders aloud.

"It was mentioned in passing at one of the underground fight clubs in Vale…before Talbot got everyone in it arrested. Considering all that's happened, any criminal organization needs to be inspected. First stop is the police station: We're going to see if anyone knows anything," Coco gives a nonchalant grin as she exits the room, her team following. With a shrug, JNPR follows, Ren hanging in back with his head slightly bowed.

/

"Get yourself some lunch, kid," Cardin pats the back of the faunus child as he scampers off with the newfound lien. The child's oversized dirt-ridden jacket flaps in the slight breeze. When he turns back to the group, the mace-wielder finds four scrutinizing gazes. "What?"

"Jaune had mentioned trying to make you a more tolerable human being. I'm surprised any of it paid off," Yang shrugs.

"It's been almost half a year," Cardin replies, exasperated. "Did you expect nothing?"

"No one's really talked to your team, so…yeah," Yang clicks her tongue. Cardin's hands tighten into fists, squeezing hard before relaxing again. With a breath, he finds himself able to find a quick word back that isn't necessarily aggressive.

"A lot's changed," he growls, stalking off and trying to shake off the returning memories of his time spent trying to earn redemption. Being ignored—and being beaten up when he wasn't being ignored. He'd tried his hardest training with Jaune and Pyrhha at night, and he'd gotten a lot better. He learned to control his anger issues because of Ozpin—through gardening. He'd stopped the racist acts and the bullying in general, but of course no one would accept that as the end of it. More attacks, more beatings, and he'd only shielded himself and hoped for the best, because going on the offensive would mean even more retaliation. But at least people were starting to notice, now.

"Kevin said that the process of becoming good isn't always easy," Sky catches up to Cardin. "Besides, they know now, don't they? Maybe it'll snowball into others at least acknowledging our efforts."

"Let's hope so."

"Team CRDL, go inform the Winchester Weapons Company of what you need to! We'll talk to Regulus Ironwood about what happened in Vale!" Ruby announces to Cardin's team, which seems to have gathered around their leader. Russell drops a mock salute as Cardin acknowledges the order with an "All right."

Team CRDL arrives at the front door of the WWC after a long march through the chilly city. Cardin adjusts his tie awkwardly, having changed out of his armor at the hotel both teams are staying at. After all, it was somewhat rude to show up unannounced to a corporation's office while wearing not-even-polished battle armor. The crisp grey suit (black, for the rest of the team) is imposing, especially as a cluster of four young men who _still insisted on carrying their conspicuous weaponry with them_.

At least Dove has the courtesy of putting his sword in a simple scabbard, instead of simply clipped to the hip. Cardin saunters up to the front desk, ignoring the crossing shotgun and broadsword on a plaque behind the receptionist. Drawing out his scroll, he clears his throat to get the woman's attention.

"Cardin Winchester, ma'am," he opens his scroll, revealing his ID from Beacon. "I need to speak with my father."

"Sure, just one moment," the girl nods, picking up the phone beside her and tapping at the dial pad. "Sir, your son is here to see you." She puts emphasis on the person in question, making sure that the person on the other end can clearly receive the message. "Yes. Okay, he'll be up in a moment." The woman turns to team CRDL. "The boss will see you now. Take the elevator to the top floor."

Team CRDL moves towards the elevator, cramming together into the glass box and letting it carry them to the top floor of the building. The window off of the back side of the elevator lets the group see the surprisingly bright overcast weather over the city. Sky seems somewhat absorbed by the sound the buttons make when you press them, though. All of them. The once smooth ride up suddenly halts at each floor, steadily but shakily making its way up at less than half the speed of before.

"I expected you to be here three minutes ago," The elder Winchester greets as Team CRDL walks into the large spacious office. He runs a musing hand through his chestnut beard before continuing. "You can even make an elevator procrastinate, huh?"

"Oh, someone pressed all the buttons on the way up," Sky starts, receiving glares from the other three members of his team. With a shrug and feigned innocence, he quips, "It wasn't me."

"Anyway," Cardin groans will a roll of his eyes. "We're here in person because the CCT in Vale has been forcibly shut down. And we're talking at all because of the fruits of a weapons theft demolishing a highway."

"No mail in almost a year, and you come in here on business, my boy?" Corvus Winchester stands to his full height, crossing his arms and letting a shadow disguise his eyes. Team CRDL subconsciously takes a step back from the imposing figure, though their leader is unaffected. "Did you at least bring some of those Valean pastries I love so much?"

"Yes," Cardin shakes his head, an amused grin on his face as he tosses over the package he'd brought from Beacon. Corvus catches it easily in one hand, his features brightening as he opens up the wrappings to reveal the sweets.

"Ha, victory!" the elder Winchester holds up the box before placing it on his desk. "So, what was that about a weapons theft?"

/

A/N Writing style: I imagine that the way I introduce problems and events through Kevin before they end up ignored for a long time gets annoying. However, that's how I experience life: Nothing's really set up into specific acts. If there's a problem, I'll work on it, and it might fade into the background for a while before it comes up again. More problems might appear in the meantime, and other events occur. That's why I have it sometimes appear the way it does (I don't think this actually relates to this chapter but I had to say it at some point)

Jaune's semblance: either Amplification or Absolution (I'm leaning towards Absolution just because it sounds cooler). Aura has a few basic functions: Healing, shielding, and attacking, although I guess it could act as a general strength/power buff as well. Jaune's semblance turns whatever of these main functions his aura is performing currently into a bubble around him that affects every other person in it.

Healing: Everything with an aura is healed of some wounds. Effectiveness based on number of people (more=less powerful)

Shielding: Bubble of safety! Take 60% reduced damage! Ally's defense has blocked the enemy's attack!

Attacking: Attacks within Jaune's bubble are enhanced by it, gaining extra power/energy/speed.

The detriments to Jaune's semblance are that it indiscriminately affects EVERY aura or thing within that 8 foot radius. It also cannot be held for more than 10 seconds or so. So he can't use it to give a massive healing buff to his allies if they're really close to an enemy. It also drains his own aura, which sort of negates his giant aura well of the gods.

I chose this type of semblance for Jaune because he's been made out to be a sort of team player. I feel like this makes him the utility dream, which helps him be a better leader by giving him a battle purpose beyond being a tactician (since his fighting skills aren't the best). I also don't like giving him anything that's too powerful (A.K.A. semblance cloning, ultimate perfect shields, know-how-to-master-any-weapon, the power of the holy divine white light, etc.). I feel like Jaune's story should include some hardship where he actually has to train, and doesn't end up relying on his semblance. After all, it'd be a cop-out if he spends ALL THIS TIME training up his swordplay and whatever only to be given the ultimate trump card which negates the point of all of that.

"Hurr durr but FallingInStereo the narrator of your story has the semblance of ultimate godly destruction like bro." I've tried to make Kevin's semblance have its equal detriments, but it probably hasn't seemed that way, as my writing of the battles isn't very good. Generally, his ability to use his semblance is powered by negativity, so fighting people can be a challenge, but fighting grimm is easy. Fighting the CCT is hard as fuck. But his semblance later might start to come at a greater cost (DUN DU NDUNNNN)


	13. Chapter 13

"The WWC has always created weaponry to be wielded by human hands. If the faunus are stealing our weapons to use against humanity, I can assure you that no one from this company is _giving_ the stuff to them," Corvus swings one hand to the side for emphasis.

 _"The Schnee Dust Company has always created its products for humans. If faunus are taking our dust and our machines and using it to attack humanity, it is of their own ability. No one would dare aid them in these thefts," Hibernicus Schnee tells his daughter._

"I'm just making sure that the _White Fang_ hasn't taken any of our weapons for their own use. With the Atlesian Military's army losing product to them already, it would be worse if the foot soldiers of the organization also got a bunch of guns," Cardin responds.

 _"We're just trying to pinpoint the source of the White Fang's weapons access. It's imperative that we know whether or not it's from the Military, or the SDC," Weiss elaborates. "Wouldn't want to waste time running down the wrong path."_

"I'll check for any discrepancies and send the files your way as well," Corvus responds after a short pause. "If the faunus are even thinking of taking our weapons, I'll have my men bear down on them with the force of a thousand suns."

 _"I'll have someone send you the files on inventory from when the final version of the Paladin was put into production onward. Hopefully you'll find that our company is secure as ever. If the faunus even think of getting their weaponry by taking from us, I'll freeze them in a wintry hell."_

/

"Well, that was fun," both Cardin and Weiss collapse into opposing chairs in the hotel lobby. Upon realizing that they'd spoken each others' words, the two corporate inheritors glare at each other.

"What happened with you?" Weiss raises an eyebrow.

"My father is a racist ass," Cardin groans. "And the files on the rifles and such from the WWC turned up nothing so far. I guess that's actually a plus: The White Fang only has _giant pilotable war machines_ instead of those _and_ a series of high-tech deadly rifles."

"If the source of the weapons is in the SDC's realm of command, we have nothing of the sort, either. Then again, the list is _long_ ," Weiss puts out a similar statement. "It might take weeks to sift through all of them."

"Good thing there are eight of us, then," Russell takes up a nearby chair. "Although we should probably move into one of the rooms with all of this stuff. There's sensitive stuff in these memos, most likely."

"Let's get to work," Cardin takes his share of folders from the large stack in the table between the two teams and makes his way to the elevator. Taking a firm grip on another set, Dove follows. Each of the other members of the investigative unit follows suit.

/

"The grimm sure are getting a bit more daring," Hex leaps at the Deathstalker, placing her hand on its head and pouring her semblance into it before crashing her cleaver sword into the shell. Thanks to her control over density, the normally tough shell turns soft under her touch, letting her slip the blade straight into the head and kill it before jumping back.

"After the mini-Breach, I'm not surprised. The grimm around the border were able to see into the city once. They know it's possible to get in, even if it requires the help of a human with a lot of explosives to break down the mountain. Until we get enough resources in here to fully patch up and reinforce this section of the wall, we need to be stationed here to keep them back," Aruna reminds Hexanne, slicing a flaming tomahawk into the throat of a beowolf.

"Which means overtaking the CCT from that Koru AI," Ember kicks another grimm away before firing her pistol into its friend. With the CCT controlling the major sections of the city of Vale, it's near impossible for anyone to bring the resources down to fix the wall that'd been destroyed by Torchwick. Jaune's temporary solution would hold for a short time, but Team BHRY is there until the more permanent solution can be reached.

"Isn't team Tank working on that?" Jade kicks off of a grimm's head before landing behind Aruna. "Something about a signal-free robot."

"The Rescue shell," the redhead recalls, pushing a flamethrower through the swarm. "No luck on recreating the Key, though. Kenny mentioned that the technology is clearly an experiment from whoever owned the store. That person's lost within one of the shelters built up in the center of Vale, or in between there and Beacon."

"Then we should keep a spare battery on us, eh?" Hex slams her weapon into the ground, causing a rift in the ground from the expended energy. The green crystal in the hilt glows as the rift shoots forward, tearing up rocks and dirt and knocking up grimm in its path. Taking the weapon back into guard position, the blonde appraises her blade. "Man, I love this thing. Energy dust is amazing."

"Seriously? Your sword can do _that_?" Aruna cleaves through an ursa's claw before using her other tomahawk to tear its head off.

"Energy Dust absorbs kinetic power, either through movement, force, or aura. Having it in this sword lets me gather energy just by swinging it around, and releasing it when I want to for some extra oomph," Hex explains, swinging the weapon upwards casually to knock away a beowolf. "It's probably why that building completely fell apart when I dropped my sword through it."

"Cool," Ember whistles, watching as Hex throws the thing like a javelin, letting it use its own power to tear through the grimm. After it embeds itself in the ground (impaling another grimm in the process), Hexanne guides some of her aura towards Arcane Demolisher, triggering the Dust gem and causing a small shockwave. The sword flies in the air, returning close enough to Hex for her to jump out and grab it. Ember can't help but smile at the display. "Very cool."


	14. Chapter 14

Abraham pulls himself up into the treeline, drawing his sniper rifle the second he lands on his feet on one of the larger branches. One black fox ear flicks against the wind as the man gets on one knee, leaning forward and looking through the scope on his weapon.

"All clear?" Talbot's voice comes through in his ear. Said man is on the forest floor, walking confidently forward, and hidden by the guise of his semblance. The only thing that gives away his presence would be his body heat and smell…but of course grimm can sense both. Abraham snaps his rifle to attention. Left. Right. Nothing.

"All clear," his smooth voice responds as he adjusts the focus on the scope a little bit. "Ready for Rescue test run Alpha."

"You heard the man," Kenny inclines his head to the blue metal chassis beside him. Nicole nods, opening the panel in the back of the machine and hefting the core module, sliding it into place and replacing the panel. She picks up the back armor for the thing and connects it, effectively defending the panel by making it not visible.

"Activating Rescue," Kenny radios to the other members of the team, tapping away into Talbot's laptop to bring the robot online. Once the lights throughout the body of it start to glow, he runs one last diagnostic before removing the wires from the side of the chassis and closing the access panel.

"I am fully assimilated into this vessel," Cortana informs, Rescue raising its head and "relaxing" into a more organic stance. Cortana steps forward onto the Launchpad, bending at the knees. A few flaps on her back open up to reveal small thrusters, and the circles in her palms glow with a similar light to the thrusters.

"Launch," Kenny presses a button, activating the launchpad and sending Rescue/Cortana into the air, descending towards the Emerald Forest and away from the Beacon cliffs. The thrusters in her feet, hands, and back all open up to max capacity, sending her careening through the air at breakneck speeds. The chassis isn't exactly tumbling, yet, so its control must be excellent. However, a lack of any other source of lift means that Rescue slowly descends into the forest, a sniper and a camouflaged man close behind.

Upon nearing the ground, Cortana flips the chassis to have it upright instead of prone, aiming all thrusters down and forcing the landing into a descent before allowing her feet to touch the ground with a resounding thud. Mechanical whirs follow her every movement as she glances around, the rectangular eyepieces scanning for signs of life.

"Despite being reinforced steel, Cortana's design for Rescue still requires her to not take many direct hits, with all those panels. She can probably block a lot, but hits to the torso will still be deadly," Talbot reminds Abraham as the two of them near the clearing Cortana landed in.

"Grimm, twelve o'clock," Abraham snaps his rifle to attention, prepared to make a saving move if Rescue malfunctions in any way. Cortana hears the growl from one of the ursai, twisting and aiming her palms in the same direction Abraham indicated. A pulsing whir accompanies the action as the plasma cannons in her arms charge up. Another ursa appears from the left, scraping the ground in preparation to charge. In response, the shoulder sections of Rescue open up, deploying two small missile pods that swerve to face the threat.

Firing plasma from her wrists and rockets from her back, the Rescue unit uses its back and leg thrusters to engage in a low hover, sweeping across the field to avoid getting hit and attacking the grimm simultaneously. All four creatures go down relatively quickly, Cortana leaping at the last one with a kick, making contact with her heel before engaging the thruster in a quick burst. The sudden flame incapacitates the grimm, the ursa falling to the ground without a sound.

Rescue rises to its feet, straightening out again as the faceplate rotates upwards, revealing a screen behind the mask, and the dual cameras above it. A short series of statistics about the recent battle flash across said lower-half-of-the-face screen. Talbot runs out and looks into the screen, recording the data on his scroll before vanishing under his semblance again.

"Was this test satisfactory?" Cortana questions, the faceplate rolling back over the screen with a hiss.

"Quite so. It's a good test of your power, but what about endurance? We'll continue for a while," Talbot responds. Rescue nods drumming its fingers against its metallic thighs before moving through the forest again. The robot chassis had proved its ability to rise some distance above the ground, and use its multiple components to its advantage per Cortana's instructions. For its weight, it's quite a powerful fighter. Or maybe that's what puts power behind its blows.

"I think that, after a few modifications for power and defense, we'll have our siege weapon," Abraham flits into another tree, his faunus heritage making it easy for him to stick the landing with no hands.

"Definitely. It'll be a shame to see it operated by a human with a remote, once Cortana gets back into the CCT."

/

"That was _sweet_ ," Nicole beams, wrapping her arms around Abraham, the team having returned from the forest test. Abraham's ears perk up as he places a hand on one of hers, returning the hug as best as he can considering his arms are pinned by hers.

"It was quite a lightshow, huh?" Abraham smiles, remembering the way Rescue could hold a steady beam of bright energy from its hands to burn through the grimm.

"The battery life isn't optimal, but we can fix that," Talbot runs through the stats on his scroll with one hand while using the other to help the team carry the Rescue chassis back to the workshop. "Plus, we have the Key, and that thing runs on a _replaceable_ battery. Whyever some guy was making a manual program insertion device is beyond me, but it's sure been helpful."

"Let's get robo-girl back to the workshop and put Cortana back into her blackbox network," Kenny rolls his eyes. "We can worry about all those logistics tomorrow." Cortana, meanwhile, is dormant within the core module of Rescue, having lost all the battery power necessary to operate the machine, and conserving what's left to keep herself somewhat active.

/

 **A/N Okay, so I've actually lost a shit-ton of motivation for this story, even though I was less than 4 chapters from at least finishing this section. There are approximately 12 chapters left that I've actually written, and a ton more story after that. I will post the twelve chapters over the next few days, and then make a few summary chapters to explain how out-of-proportion this thing was going to go. I'll also go over what my plans were in terms of symbolism and meaning. Unfortunately, this story was meant to be mainly a distraction from my life for me, and it didn't really work...**


	15. Chapter 15

Interlude: Yellow Trailer

She walks down the path, ignoring the sounds of people around her. Her mission is clear enough: Defend the princess. Why trust a mere teenager with this? Well, she wasn't alone: There were the other guards. She was only a trainee, in a sense. Mira Nova: the heiress to the throne of the Atlas Kingdom. That's her mark. Protect her at all costs.

"Are you feeling okay?" one of the guards glances down at the child. She nods her head, twisting her neck in an attempt to move the hair within her helmet out of her face. With no luck, she steps behind the more imposing figure, removing her helmet for a few seconds to let her brunette hair shake in the wind. Blinking her golden eyes twice, she sweeps her hair back and sticks her helmet back on.

The group walks slowly, surrounding the princess during the procession. New Year's: a time for celebration, and one of the few times the young woman could be seen outside of the castle during the annual parade. Naturally, such a schedule requires the protection of all of the royal guard, including a set of the recently developed Atlesian Knights. The metal armor donned on her, and every other guard, includes a pointed crest on the helmet and sweeping smooth pieces. Compared to the Mistralian armor, it's much more streamlined. No curving spikes and blades. No sharp studs across the knuckles. More notable is the combined pieces fitting into a more defensive arrangement rather than the mobility-defined metal of the Mistrali.

The noises surrounding her are slowly drained out by the music in her ears. The young girl had modified her helmet to fit a pair of headphones, blasting hard rock to her command. Even with the parading all around her, the helmet's natural noise-cancellation gave her a little world to call her own. It almost makes it easier for her to scan for any disturbances, anything out of place. Sound to most is considered an excellent tool for searching for such things. Not to the girl: Visuals are enough. She stretches out her left hand, feeling her muscles tense before relaxing. Then her right hand.

Colors surround her. Out of any other time of the year, the holidays are the most exuberant of them. Then again, there's not much to beat with that. The snow that makes up the country most times of the year washes away the ability to keep a positive attitude, if not for these holidays. Confetti drifts around her as she scans her environment. Grey: Not from any guard's armor, or those new Knight things.

A suitcase. A simple thing, normally, but not during a time like this. It slides across the pavement, blending in among another burst of raining confetti and streamers, as well as being designed to match the faded asphalt. Of course someone just _had_ to try something on the day of her first shadow mission. Ember runs forward, being the closest to the object as she shouts. She can't tell exactly what she says, but it's a definite warning, piercing through the air as well as rumbling against the earpieces within the other guards' helmets. Just as she's about to be in range to kick the thing, a brilliant white light escapes the briefcase.

The girl turns her head instinctively, raising her left arm to guard against the explosion as her right arm pulls the pistol from her waist. She'd at least gotten in position to defend the princess against the shrapnel, being between her and the bomb. Shards of metal and shredded equipment bombard the brunette. Her helmet's broken, leaving her to be able to hear the confused screams, accented with barked orders from the guards as they assemble around the princess. The last thing she can see before everything goes black is confused screaming bodies, as embers fall to the ground around her.

/

She wakes up in the hospital. There's nothing around her but white. And some grey. Metal. On her arm—no. It's exactly where her arm _should_ be. Golden eyes bugging out, she jumps in her cot. She's surprised even more by the metal's response: Moving _exactly_ as she expected her real arm to.

 _Up_ , she thinks to herself, looking at the limb. With a click and a whir, the thing responds with a half-second of lag.

The next few weeks are a mix of commendations and apologies from all of the guards, and the princess herself. Bravery, integrity, dedication, and more words swim around in her head as they're uttered by the men and women surrounding her. Some doctor helps her gain full mental control over her robotic limb, and some skin grafts fix all the burn scars on her left side.

Atlesian technology had made her whole again…sort of. However, fear wracks her body and her mind over the months: A simple nine-year-old had been blown up and lost an arm. Not exactly something one gets up and walks away from. Some more doctoring brings her from the brink of insanity. Images of Atlas, however, clearly still affect her. Some more heretic individuals and groups…namely a faunus group that'd recently changed its leadership…attack her. With the title of Paladin, a girl so dedicated to a kingdom that had legalized apartheid against the faunus makes an opportune target.

In response, members of the Atlas council decide to move her to Vale for her own sake. A new apartment, belonging to her and one of the engineers that built her arm, and a bag of her belongings, is all she has in the new world. As time goes on, she gets used to the new arm. After deciding to apply to a combat school, the engineer builds her a new arm that includes a battle function for her. Along with that, he creates a giant machine gun for her.

Of course, moving kingdoms isn't enough to defend against a multinational organization such as the White Fang. The girl must also strip herself of her identity as far as she can. Changing her hair to blonde, developing a fighting style different from Atlas, and more. Most important, a name change. At the time of the request, more images of the bombing flash through her mind. She looks up at the lawyer who's going through the trouble of helping her change her identity.

"Ember." A glance at the golden pistol at her side. A gift from one of the guards who'd mothered her after she lost her own. The woman had given it to her as a goodbye present. "Ember Rosemary."

/

A/N So, yeah, I'm doing the cliché trailer thing. I didn't lead in with this because I felt that I could give these characters better development by using them later. This one is of course focused on Ember. Basic story is that Ember is originally from Atlas, and had been a guard of the royal family. After an explosion that she shielded the princess from, she lost her arm. Blah blah, she lived in Vale from about 9 years old onward.

I also used New Year's again (both Jade and Kevin have problems with that time of year). Mainly because I wanted to showcase the idea that Atlas _isn't_ just a land of desolation, it has parades! It also suggests that Ember, despite her personality in the present, has had her own darkness.

Kevin, Jade, and Aruna don't require trailers (I drop so many goddamn hints all the time), so I might only use those backstories in extreme cases of writers' block. Ember's story is generally concealed by her happy-go-lucky attitude, so I thought this might help give some background (After all, "return to darkness" requires people to have had dark shit before. This is Ember's).


	16. Chapter 16

"I told you, I don't know anything!" the man throws his hands up in the air, clearly tired of putting up with the interrogation from Coco. As much as the girl is a total badass, getting people to talk and getting people to be dead are two very different things.

" _Someone_ from your little center of illegal everything mentioned this thing called The Pit. Do you at least know that person?" Coco tries one last time, slamming her hand on the table.

"No," the man sneers.

/

"The Pit. Answers. Now," Fox states simply, after being asked by the criminal across from him what his business was. In response, the man raises both of his arms up, tucking his hands behind his head and letting his underarms air out in the room. Being somewhat versed in neutrality, it's no problem for Fox to keep a straight face, but inside, he's screaming out for salvation. Being blind makes it even harder for him to ignore the smell. The man chuckles, having caught the milliseconds of reaction before Fox could don his mask.

/

"Are you gonna say something or are you just gonna stand there?" the young woman, covered in tribal tattoos down her arms, with one mark trailing up her neck, leans back in her chair, crossing her limbs. Ren ignores her, standing in a corner opposite the blonde with the pixie cut. The most he offers is a glance in her direction, opening his eyes after taking a sip from the cup resting in his palm.

"Wait…I've heard of you," she smirks, leaning forward and placing one elbow on the table. She taps her chin in thought before snapping her fingers and pointing at the Eastern boy. "Yes, the Black Dragon. Right?"

"So you do know, huh?" Ren steps forward, placing the cup down on the table, close enough to the woman so that she can take it. "But you clearly have no direct experience."

"Is that right, Dragon boy?" she chuckles, taking the cup from its place and downing a sip.

"For instance, anyone who's fought me knows that getting hit is not an option. That includes from things I've made contact with— _especially_ given time to prepare."

"What are you talking about…" the woman raises an eyebrow before her green eyes flash pink. The intensity returns to normal, leaving the slightest fuchsia haze around her irises. The paper cup makes its way to the floor, clattering harmlessly against the cement. With his experience in aura manipulation, it's no problem for the Eastern boy to infuse some of his aura into the drink, letting it corrupt the woman from the inside out and make her more easily influenced for a short time. Ren takes the opportunity to slide into the interrogator's chair, snapping his sleeves crisp before continuing, reaching one hand up and placing it under her chin.

"Now then, what do you know about The Pit, past and present?"

/

"Not fun not fun not fun not fun!" Dove flies down the hallway, his semblance letting him not have to bother with actually running. Meanwhile, a Schnee arachnid droid transforms its weapon arms into a singular cannon, its brilliant blue light illuminating the dark hallway. Dove manages to see a shadow cast by this, diving into the second hall and avoiding getting lasered.

"So…this was a bad idea," Cardin grumbles, helping Dove to his feet.

"Tell me about it," Russell agrees. "'Oh, we should check the underground facilities, since the Breach originated from an underground track,' says Ruby."

"Maybe she should've gotten Weiss to go through official channels. Getting _shot at by lasers_ isn't fun," Dove stretches out his back. "Instead we're dealing with Schnee robo-guards, and they're topside having fun with that disturbance in the rotten woods."

/

"This is _so_ not fun!" Yang complains, smashing another White Fang agent into the ground. After a long time trekking through the woods, Team RWBY had managed to stumble across an operation—a series of transports carrying a bunch of robot parts. Obviously, the team snuck along as far as they could to follow the convoy past the woods, but had run into some trouble when someone's bright blonde hair stuck out among the bland environment and a soldier pointed it out. So now, the game is "fight for your life against hordes of sentient enemies and robots all while chasing down a convoy carrying more sentient enemies and robots."

Of course, of all teams, Rwby would succeed, following the convoy all the way to…a mountain. According to plan, each partnership is hiding in the back of two of the remaining convoy trucks. Ruby pokes her head out of the mass of robot parts and points to the snowcapped mountain.

"So, we're not showing any signs of turning," Ruby points out as the trucks switch onto the matted down and packed earth surrounding the structure. "And that's a caveless mountain."

"Perhaps there's a secret passageway that we can't see from this distance," Weiss postulates, grabbing Ruby by the hood and dragging her back into hiding. "But that's not our problem at the moment." Ruby grumbles to herself as the convoy continues forward, eventually reaching the steep angle of the mountain. The cloudy atmosphere of the outside world suddenly disappears, replaced with the inner workings of an industrial facility. The quiet wind of the north is replaced with sounds of feet bustling about and machines at work.

"A massive-scale holographic projector," Weiss muses. "Amazing that they would get their hands on something like that." As the convoy rolls to a stop, someone orders someone else to unload the cargo. Footfalls gain volume as they draw near, the White Fang grunts pulling parts from the piles in the backs of the trucks. From the looks of it, there's only one person on each side. Perfect.

Team RWBY unloads themselves, dropping from the truck payloads and breaking the grunts under their feet with little noise. Among the din of the mechanics around them, that means no noise. The four regroup, hiding against the side of one of the trucks.

"Alright, time for Operation: Investigation," Ruby cocks the slide of her weapon, chambering a new round.


End file.
